fc£ 


« 


J&     **v^ 

a 


.    ' 


••VI 

J&C 


, 


1C 


•£** 


J**k ', 


xvo  •. 

™  fv-^K 


;• 


.HOIAEER10L-- 
THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


1L 


95 


HOI  A 


Tl-n.-f 


V-,  V* 


*v*     , 


The  person  charging  this  material  is  re- 
sponsible for  its  return  to  the  library  from 
which  it  was  withdrawn  on  or  before  the 
Latest  Date  stamped  below. 

Theft,  mutilation,  and  underlining  of  books 
are  reasons  for  disciplinary  action  and  may 
result  in  dismissal  from  the  University. 

UNIVERSITY    OF    ILLINOIS    LIBRARY    AT    URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


APR  2  «i  978 
HAY  3  '  lU 


L161  — O-1096 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  STUDIES 


IN  THE 


SOCIAL  SCIENCES 


VOL.    1.      NO.      4  DECEMBER.    1912 


FRIEDRICH  GENTZ 

an  Opponent  of  the 
French  Revolution  and  Napoleon 


BY 
PAUL  F.  REIFF,  Ph.D. 

Sometime  Fellow  in  History 
University  of  Illinois 


PRICE    BO    CENTS 


URBANA-CHAMPAIGN,  ILLINOIS 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 


COPYRIGHT  1912 
BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  9-1 1 

I.     THE  CAUSES  OF  THE  STRUGGLE 

1.  ENVRONMENTS  OF  "HE  YOUNC  GENTZ 12-21 

Berlin  between  1780  and  1790,  12.  Prussia  under  Fred- 
erick II  and  Frederick  William  II,  13.  Conditions 
in  the  "Empire",  14.  German  patriotism  and  cosmo- 
politanism, 16.  Political  and  intellectual  tendencies  in 
Germany  between  1780  and  1790,  18.  German  ration- 
alism, 19.  Position  of  the  German  author,  21. 

2.  GENTZ'S  CHARACTER  22-30 

Influence  of  environments,  22.  Physique,  22.  Relations 
of  intellect  to  sentiment,  22.  Love  of  discussion,  23. 
Gift  of  conversation,  24.  Receptivity  and  originality, 
25.  Secondary  traits  of  character,  26.  Relation  to 
romanticism,  26.  Sociability,  27.  Ideals  of  life,  27. 
Qualifications  as  a  politician,  29.  Literary  ability,  30. 

B  3.     GENTZ'S  POMTICAL  THEORIES 30-52 

Difficulty  of  presenting  them,  30.    Their  general  sources, 
31.     Natural  law,  31.     Political  theories  of  Cicero, 
Garve,  Rousseau  and  Montesquieu,  32. 
Gentz's  political  theories  until  1790,  36.    Burke's  theories, 

38. 

Gentz's  views  on   government  since   1793:     Relation  to 
^  natural  law  and  positive-historical  law,  39.     Ideal  of 

.-;  human  progress,  42.    State  of  nature  and  social  com- 

pact, 43.    Later  view  on  the  basis  of  the  authority  of 
the  government,  44.     Duties  of  the  state,  44.    Forms 
of   government,   45.     Liberty,   equality   and   popular 
sovereignty,   46.     Defects   of   government,    right   of 
revolution  and  progress,  47.    "Eternal  laws",  48. 
Gentz's  views  on  international  law  since  1793 :     Idea  of  a 
world  state,  48.    Rights  and  duties  of  the  individual 
-^7  states   toward   one   another,   49.     International  con- 

gresses,  49.     The   European   balance   of   power,   50. 
War,   50. 

Problem  of  priority  of  Gentz's  political  theories  to  his 
political  struggles:  influence  of  Cicero,  50. 
3 


PAGE 

II.  THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  THE  REVOLUTION 

1 .  BEFORE  THE  STRUGGLE  :  1789-1792 53-6o 

Germany  and  the  Revolution,  53.  Gentz's  state  of  mind 
on  the  eve  of  the  movement,  56.  His  early  sympa- 
thies with  it,  57.  Observation  of  events,  57.  Change 
of  attitude,  58. 

2.  1793-1799   60-83 

Gentz's  official  position  and  life  in  Berlin,  60.  Anti-revo- 
lutionary publications,  61.  Early  relations  to  foreign 
governments,  62.  Causes  of  activity,  64.  Influence 
of  Burke  and  Mallet  du  Pan,  64. 

Gentz's  conception  of  the  Revolution  and  the  duties  of 
Europe:  Conditions  in  pre-revolutionary  France,  67. 
Immediate  causes  of  the  Revolution,  67.  Rousseau, 
69.  Beginning  and  end  of  the  Revolution,  69.  Its 
importance,  70.  Its  fundamental  principles,  71.  Its 
relations  to  Europe,  74.  Europe  in  1800,  76.  Secret 
of  the  successes  of  the  Revolution,  77.  Proper  policy 
of  Europe,  79.  Relations  to  England,  80. 

Temporary  suspension  of  the  struggle,  82. 

III.  THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON 

1 .  BEFORE  THE  STRUGGLE  :  1798-1802 84-88 

Napoleon  and  the  Revolution,  84.  Gentz's  attitude  to- 
ward Napoleon  until  the  Coup  d  fitat,  85.  Beginning 
of  opposition,  87. 

2.  1803-1809   88-134 

Gentz's  appointment  in  Vienna,  88.  His  life  and  ambi- 
tions, 90. 

General  features  of  Gentz's  struggle  against  Napoleon : 
Its  causes,  91.  Idea  of  coalitions,  94.  Attitude  to- 
ward Russia  and  England,  95.  Memorials  in  general, 
97.  Correspondence,  98.  Publications,  98.  Other 
methods  of  opposition,  99.  Ultimate  aims,  99.  Judg- 
ment on  the  personality  of  Napoleon,  99. 

Spring,  i8o3,-summer,  1805 :  Gentz's  life  and  frame  of 
mind,  102.  Memorials,  103.  Relations  to  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, Berlin,  and  London,  104.  Organization  of 
the  Austrian  cabinet,  105.  Career  of  Cobenzl,  106. 
Difficulty  of  his  task,  107.  His  policy  until  the  con- 
clusion of  the  alliance  with  Russia,  108.  Gentz's  op- 
4 


PAGE 

position   to   Cobenzl,   no.     Suggestions   as    to   Cob- 
enzl's    successor,    112.     Memorials   and   their   effect, 

112. 

Summer,  i8o5,-fall,  1805 :  Gentz's  views  on  the  Euro- 
pean situation  and  the  prospects  of  Austria,  117. 

Fall,  i8os,-end  of  1805 :  Opening  of  the  war  by  Napoleon, 
119.  Effect  of  Ulm,  119.  Gentz's  flight  from  Vi- 
enna, 120.  Effect  of  Austerlitz,  122.  Further  flight 
and  stay  in  Dresden  and  Prague,  122. 

Beginning  of  i8o6-beginning  of  1809:  Gentz's  life  and 
state  of  mind  in  general,  124.  His  plans  concern- 
ing Prussia,  126.  The  Fragmente,  127.  Memori- 
als, 128.  Social  activity,  129.  Meetings  with  Baron 
Stein,  130.  Suspicions  of  Napoleon,  130.  Visit  at 
the  Prussian  headquarters,  131.  Relations  to  Eng- 
land, 132.  Return  to  Vienna,  133. 

Gentz's  activity  during  the  war  of  1809,  133. 

3.     1813-1815    134-153 

1809-1812:  Gentz's  life  and  activity  in  general,  134.  His 

attitude  during  the  Russian  campaign,  137. 
Spring,  i8i3,-summer,  1814:  Gentz's  views  on  the  best 
Austrian  policy,  138.  His  stay  and  activity  at  Rati- 
borzitz,  142.  At  Prague  and  Freiburg,  144.  Return  to 
Vienna,  145.  Growing  need  of  comfort,  145.  Opposi- 
tion to  the  continuation  of  the  war  after  Leipzig,  146. 
Views  on  the  reorganization  of  Germany  and  the  best 
policy  toward  Napoleon,  147.  Motives  for  distrust  of 
the  allies,  149.  Relations  to  Metternich,  150. 
Gentz  at  the  congress  of  Vienna,  151.  During  the  Hun- 
dred Days,  152. 

CONCLUSION 154-156 


ABBREVIATIONS 

Aus  dein  Nachlasse — Aus  dem  Nachlasse  Friedrichs  von  Gents,  2  vol'+ 

1867-1868. 
Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents — Brief e  von  und  an  Friedrich  von  Gents,  ed.  by 

F.  C.  Wittichen,  2  vol.,  1909-1910. 
Briefiv.  zw.  Fr.  Gents  u.  A.  H.  Muller — Briefwechsel  swischen  Friedrich 

Gents  und  Adam  Heinrich  Muller,  1857. 

H.  J — Historisches  Journal,  ed.  by  Friedrich  Gentz,  6  vol.,  1799-1800. 
Mem.  et  lett.  ined. — Memoirs  et  lettres  inedits  du  Chevalier  de  Gents,  ed. 

by  Schlesier,  1841. 
Schlesier — Schriften  von  Friedrich  von  Gents,  ed.  by  Schlesier,   5  vol., 

1838-1840. 
Weick — Ausgewdhlte  Schriften  von  Friedrich  von  Gents,  ed.  by  Weick, 

5  vol.,  1836-1838. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

For  bibliography  it  will  be  sufficient  to  refer  here  to  that  given  by 
Friedrich  M.  Kircheisen  and  Friedrich  Carl  Wittichen  in  Mitteilungen  des 
Instituts  fiir  Osterreichische  Geschichtsforschung,  XXVII  (1906),  91-146 
and  682-694.  , 


ERRATA 

1.  Page  30,  line  II,  for  "at"    read  "the". 

2.  Page  39,  line  3,  for  "Burke,"  read  "Burke." 

3.  Page  53,  toward  end  of  note  i,  for  "January  21  st,  1792"  read  "Janu- 

ary 21  st,  1793". 

4.  Page  54,  line  27,  for  "couse"  read  "cause". 

5.  Page  55,  line  20-21,  for  "Z.  L.  Huber"  read  "J.  L.  Huber". 

6.  Page  61,  line  16,  for  "Office"  read  "office"; 

line  22,  for  "Ubel"   read  "Uber" ; 

line  24,  for  "Herra"  read  "Herrn"; 

line  25,  for  "Xationalerzichung"  read  "Xationalererziehung". 

7.  Page  62,  line  17,  for  "Entstchung"    read    "Enstehung"; 

n°e  33,  for  "Teutsche"    read    "teutsche". 

8.  Page  67,  line  14,  for  "overpupulation"  read  "overpopulation". 

9.  Page  77,  line  27,  for  "refernce"  read  "reference". 
10.     Page  88,  note  12,  for  "70,"  read  "70.". 

it.  Page  89,  note  13,  for  "Tagebiicher".  omit  quotation  marks. 

12.  Page  97,  line  31,  for  "the"  read  "The". 

13.  Page  125,  line  3,  for  "entire"  read  "central". 

14.  Page  126,  line  13,  for  "is"  read  "in". 

15.  Page  136,  line  28,  for  "mostly"    read    "much". 

16.  Page  141,  line  6,  for  "first"  read  "second". 

17.  Page  143,  line  31,  for  "enrahissement"  read  "envahissement". 

18.  Page  153,  line  i,  for  "concession"  read  "cession". 


Narrow  personalities  are  easy  to  understand  and  to 
classify ;  rich  personalities,  on  the  other  hand,  seem  to  defy 
definition. 

That,  at  least,  is  one  of  the  teachings  that  may  be 
derived  from  a  study  of  the  career  and  character  of  the 
publicist,  Frederick  Gentz.  Gentz's  life  was  not  an  unusu- 
ally long  one,  yet  it  was  unusually  rich  in  activities  and 
complex  tendencies.  But  the  causes  of  this  lay  less  in  the 
tremendous  vibrations  of  the  era  in  which  Gentz  lived 
than  in  the  man  himself;  they  lay  in  a  versatility  of  mind 
which  was  truly  astonishing.  An  official  in  the  Prussian 
and  Austrian  civil  services,  a  diplomatic  agent  of  England 
on  the  Continent,  the  self-appointed  adviser  of  ministers  and 
rulers,  one  of  the  busiest  and  ablest  writers  of  his  time, 
the  arch-enemy  of  the  first  French  revolution  and  the  first 
Napoleon,  the  secretary  of  Europe  during  nine  highly  im- 
portant months,  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  Reaction,  a  social 
genius  of  the  first  order,  the  bohcmien  par  excellence,  and  a 
romanticist  as  well  as  a  rationalist — all  this  Gentz  was. 
His  youth  fell  in  the  era  of  enlightenment  and  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  his  manhood  coincided  with  the  first  French 
revolution  and  with  Napoleon,  and  his  later  life  belonged 
to  the  age  of  Metternich. 

The  question  who  Gentz  was  would  thus  seem  to  be 
difficult  to  answer.  However,  if  we  consider  only  his  po- 
litical activity  and  the  intellectual  traits  of  his  nature, 
leaving  aside  its  sentimental  and  social  features,  the 
answer  will  be  easier.  We  will  then  have  the  choice  be- 
tween two  chief  conceptions  of  the  man.  One  of  these 
would  be  to  see  in  Gentz  an  eighteenth  century  type  in 
general,  and  a  practical  exponent  of  the  rationalistic  doc- 
trine of  government  in  particular.  This  conception  is  in  one 
way  undoubtedly  the  deepest  and  truest,  for  Gentz  was 
indeed  rooted  in  the  doctrines  of  rationalism,  at  least  as 


10  FBIEDRICH  GENTZ  [496 

regards  his  political  activity.  It  has,  however,  one  serious 
drawback,  the  fact  that  in  its  light  the  life-work  of  Gentz — 
his  struggles  against  the  Revolution,  against  Napoleon  and 
for  the  Reaction — appears  as  nothing  but  a  mere  appendix 
to  his  theories;  and  that,  of  course,  would  be  a  rather 
abstract  Avay  of  looking  at  him.  We  have  thus  to  turn  to 
the  other  conception  which  puts  actions  first  and  theories 
second.  Viewed  from  this  angle,  Gentz  would  be  seen 
chiefly  as  a  participant — more  or  less  a  negative  one,  it 
is  true — in  the  great  European  movements  between  the 
first  and  second  French  revolutions. 

And  thus,  it  seems,  Gentz  must  indeed  be  viewed.  He 
was  essentially  a  theorist  whom  the  course  of  events 
aroused,  but  in  fact  a  man  of  action.  He  started  out  with 
highly  idealistic  jy;inciples,  those  of  human  brotherliness 
and  human  progress,  of  liberty,  equality,  justice  and  peace. 
Some  of  these  he  retained  and  championed  for  many  years ; 
others  he  soon  dropped  or  at  least  modified,  taking  up  in 
their  stead,  as  a  new  principle,  the  defence  of  that  system 
which  was  threatened  with  overthrow  by  the  events  of  1789 
and  the  following  decades.  The  French  Revolution,  Bona- 
partism  and  Liberalism  alike  were  hateful  to  him ;  they  all 
meant  democracy  or  at  least  a  drifting  towards  it,  and 
democracy  he  abhorred.  But  his  special  foe,  his  nightmare 
for  more  than  ten  years,  was  Napoleon.  On  his  account  he 
suffered  many  a  bad  hour  and  gained  immortality ;  for  such 
is  the  character  of  true  greatness  that  mere  opposition  to 
it  brings  fame.  He  helped  to  arouse  and  to  organize  the 
opposition  against  whatever  was  revolutionary  and  aggres- 
sive; but  nowhere  was  he  more  fervent  than  in  his  crusade 
against  this  hated  man  and  gigantic  child  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. His  whole  life,  indeed,  centers  about  the  ten  years 
of  his  anti-Napoleonic  activity. 

The  following  study  will,  in  general,  be  in  accordance 
with  the  second  of  the  two  conceptions.  It  aims,  in  the 
first  place,  at  a  careful  representation  of  Gentz's  struggle 
against  the  first  Napoleon.  Its  second  object — historically 
the  first — is  an  account  of  Gentz's  relations  to  the  first 


497]  INTRODUCTION  11 

French  revolution.    The  introductory  chapter  will  try  to 
give  the  causes  of  Gentz's  attitude  in  both  cases. 

Gentz  was  born  in  1764  at  Breslau,  the  capital  of  the 
Prussian  province  of  Silesia,  and  died  in  1832  at  Vienna. 
His  father  held  until  1779  a  position  in  the  royal  mint  at 
Breslau  and  then  became  director  of  the  mint  at  Berlin; 
through  his  mother  he  was  related  to  the  later  Prussian 
minister  of  state,  Ancillon.  He  received  his  first  education 
in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  city  and  in  the  Joach- 
imsthal-Gymnasium  at  Berlin;  from  1783  to  1785  he  at- 
tended the  university  at  Konigsberg,  where  Kant  was  still 
teaching.  Entering  the  Prussian  civil  service  in  1785,  he 
worked  during  the  following  years  in  various  central  boards 
of  the  monarchy.  In  1802  he  was  taken  over  into  the  Aus- 
trian civil  service.  His  official  positTon  there  was  at  first 
a  very  vague  one;  he  was  attached  to  the  ministry  of  for- 
eign affairs,  the  Staatskanzlei,  but  had  little  to  do  and 
nothing  to  say.  After  about  1811,  however,  he  gradually 
became  the  right  hand  man  of  Metternich  and  was  as  such 
of  course,  important  and  influential. 


I.    THE  CAUSES  OF  THE  STRUGGLE 

1.    ENVIRONMENTS  OF  THE  YOUNG  GENTZ. 

Although  Gentz  was  not  a  Berliner  by  birth,  yet  he 
lived  long  enough  in  the  Prussian  capital  to  be  counted  as 
one.  The  first  milieu  of  his  youth  was  then  the  Berlin  of 
about  the  years  1780-1790.  Beyond  it  lay,  as  larger  circles, 
the  condition  of  Prussia  and  of  the  "Empire".  Beyond 
these  again  extended  the  atmosphere  of  European  life  and 
thought  in  general. 

Berlin  was  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Frederick  the 
Great  a  city  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
people,  the  strong  garrison  included.  A  modest-sized  place 
then,  one  might  say,  if  everything  had  not  been  smaller  in 
those  days.  Scenic  charms  it  never  possessed,  although 
the  near-by  Havel  lakes  are  not  without  their  quiet,  mel- 
ancholy attractions.  Its  streets  were  none  too  clean,  rather 
badly  lighted  and  unsafe  at  night.  There  were  perhaps  a 
few  noteworthy  buildings  here  and  there,  but  the  general 
level  of  architecture  was  rather  low.  The  present  univer- 
sity had  not  yet  been  founded;  the  academies  of  science  and 
of  arts,  however,  already  existed. 

The  intellectual  and  artistic  life  of  the  city  could  not 
claim  any  special  distinction.  No  famous  philosopher  or 
scholar,  no  great  poet  or  artist  lived  within  its  precincts; 
there  were,  of  course,  Mcolai  and  Mendelssohn,  but  they 
could  not  be  called  great,  and  Lessing  had  long  since  left 
the  city.  Berlin  was  too  new  and  young,  too  sober,  too 
busy  and  too  poor  to  be  a  centre  of  learning  and  of  art ;  it 
possessed  many  soldiers,  plenty  of  sand,  an  invigorating 
climate  and  a  great  king,  but  no  Hesperian  gardens  and 
no  zephyrs,  few  books  and  hardly  any  history  to  speak  of. 
Nevertheless,  in  a  certain  sense  the  city  could  even  then 
boast  of  intellectual  preeminence:  it  was  the  center  of  Ger- 
man rationalism  and  already  endowed  with  that  critical 

12 


499]  EARLY  ENVIRONMENTS  13 

mind  for  which  it  has  ever  since  been  famous.  Socially 
the  nobility  predominated;  the  other  classes — the  officials 
and  the  professions,  the  wealthier  merchants,  the  descend- 
ants of  the  French  emigres  and  the  Jews — still  counted 
for  little.  The  moral  standard  was  unsatisfactory  in  many 
regards,  but  probably  not  so  bad  as  anti-rationalists  would 
have  it;  it  had  already  been  on  the  decline  in  the  later 
years  of  Frederick  the  Great,  and  under  his  successor  mat- 
ters went  from  bad  to  worse. 

All  in  all,  then,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Berlin  of 
those  days  was  rather  uninteresting.  One  great  attraction 
it  did  possess,  however,  and  that  was  Frederick  himself. 
His  fame  still  brought  distinguished  visitors  from  abroad; 
but  they  came  more  and  more  rarely,  afraid  of  disturbing 
the  great  man  in  his  work.  To  the  general  public  the  king 
was  generally  not  visible.  At  military  parades  he  could, 
perhaps,  be  seen,  or  when  he  occasionally  rode  into  town; 
aside  from  these  occasions,  however,  he  never  left  his  be- 
loved Sanssouci  except  for  the  annual  visits  to  the  prov- 
inces. He  had  become  a  stern  old  man ;  a  terribly  exacting 
taskmaster  whom  few  loved  and  all  respected.  Physical 
ailments  troubled  him,  his  friends  had  mostly  died,  and 
Berlin  grumbled;  but  that  mattered  little.  Patriae  in 
serviendo  consumor — this  was  his  kingly  program,  to  be 
observed  by  himself  no  less  than  by  his  subjects;  as  for  the 
rest,  he  was  the  King,  and  every  malcontent  was  at  liberty 
to  grumble,  provided  that  he  obeyed. 

The  political  system  of  Frederick  was  in  some  respects 
based  on  rationalistic  principles,  in  others,  again,  it  was 
shaped  according  to  practical  considerations ;  to  call  it  en- 
lightened absolutism  would,  therefore,  not  be  quite  correct. 
Frederick  maintained  a  big  army;  he  waged  three  wars 
which  were,  at  least  in  part,  wars  of  conquest:  and  he 
thought  remarkably  little  of  the  individual  as  such — in 
all  this  he  was  not  a  rationalist.  Likewise,  his  confirmation 
of  the  privileges  obtained  by  the  Prussian  nobility  during 
previous  reigns  exceeded  that  which  was  permissible  from 
the  rational istic  standpoint.  On  the  other  hand,  Frederick 


14  FEIEDRICH  GENTZ  [500 

was  in  harmony  with  the  latter  when  he  called  himself  the 
first  servant  of  the  state,  when  he  put  the  common  weal 
above  all  private  interests,  and  would  allow  every  one  to 
seek  salvation  according  to  his  own  fashion. 

Under  his  successor,  Frederick  William  II,  the  gen- 
eral organization  of  the  state  was  retained,  but  in  less  im- 
portant points  changes  were  made.  The  two  notorious 
laws  of  his  reign — the  ordinances  concerning  public  wor- 
ship and  the  censorship  of  the  press— were  of  great  actual 
importance,  but  did  not  affect  the  formal  structure  of  the 
state ;  they  proceeded  from  the  individual  character  of  the 
king  or  of  his  nearest  advisers  and  were  intended  as  a  blow 
against  the  hated  rationalism.  Although  fundamental  re- 
forms did  not  come  until  after  the  debacle  of  1806,  there 
was,  even  then,  a  good  deal  of  discussion  whether  steps  in 
this  direction  should  not,  after  all,  be  seriously  considered. 
Personally  Frederick  William  did,  of  course,  not  enjoy  the 
respect  paid  to  his  uncle,  yet  he  was  not  unpopular  with 
his  people,  rather  the  contrary,  it  would  seem ;  but  his  reign, 
as  a  whole,  was  undoubtedly  pernicious  to  the  state.  Sub- 
sequent events  showed  that  under  him  Prussian  efficiency, 
thrift  and  devotion  to  the  common  interests  retrograded 
witli  sinister  rapidity. 

Beyond  Prussia  lay  the  "Empire."  It  had  gradually 
become  the  most  complicated  as  well  as  one  of  the  least 
important  political  bodies  of  Europe.  The  emperor  at 
Vienna,  the  diet  at  Kegensburg,  the  supreme  court  at 
Wetzlar,  traditions  centuries  old  and  the  lack  of  something 
better  kept  it,  in  a  way,  together ;  yet  its  doom  was  near  at 
hand.  Austria,  Prussia,  and  the  more  important  of  the 
smaller  German  territories  had  become  absolutistic  and 
centralized  states;  in  the  "Empire"  the  old  German 
Libertdt  remained.  The  emperor  still  had  to  be  elected, 
and  the  case  of  Charles  VII  showed  that  this  meant  more 
than  a  mere  formality ;  he  presided  over  the  imperial  diet, 
the  strangest  element  of  this  strange  political  organization. 
This  body,  in  general,  contained  the  territorial  lords;  but 
these  might  be  neutra,  as  was  the  case  with  the  free  cities 


501]  EARLY  ENVIRONMENTS  15 

and  perhaps,  the  free  abbots.  Represented  or  actually  pres- 
ent were  the  temporal  princes,  high  and  low,  the  great  dig- 
nitaries of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  free  abbots,  the  col- 
leges of  the  imperial  counts,  knights  and  cities,  and  finally 
such  foreign  powers  as  possessed  German  territory.  The 
Catholic  votes  still  preponderated  numerically;  however, 
that  involved  hardly  any  danger  to  the  Protestants,  since 
in  strictly  religious  matters  the  old  itio  in  paries  had  been 
retained.  As  a  rule,  the  august  body  would  proceed  with 
no  undue  rashness;  time-honoured  traditions  had  to  be 
observed,  and  that  being  accomplished,  little  else  remained 
to  be  done.  The  weakness  and  stagnation  of  imperial  Ger- 
many resulted,  of  course,  largely  from  the  antagonism  be- 
tween Austria  and  Prussia.  United,  these  two  powers 
would  have  presented  a  most  formidable  combination,  but 
the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  that.  There  were  the  smaller 
German  states  and  there  was  Poland;  who  would  control 
the  one  and  absorb  the  other?  Neither  power  was  willing 
to  allow  the  other  to  do  it,  and  thus  the  relations  between 
them  remained  strained,  with  a  tendency  to  become  deli- 
cate at  any  moment. 

The  internal  conditions  of  the  different  German  terri- 
tories outside  of  Prussia  and  Austria  varied  considerably. 
Bavaria  stood  apart.  A  Chinese  wall  was  carefully  drawn 
around  it  to  exclude  all  possibility  of  protestant,  ration- 
alistic or  pan-German  influences;  for  these  the  ruling  class 
considered  dangerous.  The  country  was  to  be  their  own 
reservation;  besides,  it  really  needed  no  suggestions  from 
"abroad,"  being  a  self-sufficient  state  and,  if  you  were 
ready  to  admit  the  facts,  quite  a  power.  West  and  north 
of  Bavaria  began  the  "Empire"  in  the  narrowest  sense  of 
the  word.  The  common  features  of  this  whole  part  of  Ger- 
many— it  comprised,  roughly  speaking,  Suabia,  the  Black 
Forest  district,  Franconia,  the  Rhine  country,  the  strip 
east  of  it  as  far  as  the  Weser,  and  Thuringia — were  three- 
fold: the  territorial  incoherence  of  all  the  states,  the 
smallness  of  most  of  them  and,  as  regards  the  population,  a 
certain  intellectual  liveliness  and  love  of  independence. 


16  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [502 

Take,  for  instance,  the  Suabian  district  of  the  "Empire" ;  it 
contained  one  duchy,  Wurtemberg,  forty  ecclesiastical  ter- 
ritories, thirty  imperial  cities,  many  princely  seigniories 
and  the  domains  of  the  numerous  free  counts  and  free 
knights.  Or  take  the  electorate  of  Mainz ;  its  nucleus  con- 
sisted of  the  rich  estates  in  the  Rheingau  and  along  the 
lower  Main,  but  besides  these  it  possessed  also  Bischofs- 
heim  on  the  Tauber,  Starkenburg  in  the  Odenwald,  Fritz- 
lar  in  Hesse,  Erfurt,  and  the  whole  Eichsfeld.  Territories 
of  that  configuration  and  insignificance  would,  of  course, 
not  think  of  having  any  independent  policy.  The  smallest  of 
them  trembled  for  their  very  existence.  They,  the  free  cities, 
knights,  counts  and  abbots,  the  bishops  and  petty  temporal 
princes,  then  the  archbishops  and  ecclesiastical  electors 
mostly  attached  themselves  to  Austria,  while  the  larger 
political  states,  during  this  period,  sought  the  protection  of 
Prussia.  The  nobility  was  almost  everywhere  firmly  en- 
trenched, if  it  was  not  the  sovereign  itself;  in  the  imperial 
cities,  of  course,  no  nobility  in  the  technical  sense  of  the 
word  existed,  but  there  were  the  patrician  families  and  in 
their  hands  the  political  power  lay.  The  authority  of  the 
sovereign  was  nowhere  unlimited  or  undisputed;  the  no- 
bles, the  chapters  of  the  cathedrals,  the  lower  classes  in  the 
free  cities  and  sometimes  even  the  peasants  jealously 
guarded  whatever  rights  they  happened  to  possess. 

Such  then  were  the  conditions  in  the  "Empire."  They 
resembled  somewhat  those  of  Italy,  but  aside  from  this 
there  was  not  the  like  of  them  in  all  Europe;  not  even  the 
moribund  Poland  could  be  referred  to  as  a  parallel.  Obso- 
lete and  unsound  they  must  have  appeared  to  many; 
but  they  had  also  their  attractive  sides:  they  were 
venerable,  interesting  and  indicative  of  great  regard  for 
historic  rights.  One  of  those  who  felt  a  sentimental  attach- 
ment to  the  "Empire"  on  account  of  these  reasons  was 
Gentz. 

The  fact  that  Germany  then  was  not  much  more  than 
a  geographical  notion  naturally  resulted  in  a  certain 
quiescence  of  national  pride  and  sentiment.  The  poets  of 


503]  EARLY  ENVIRONMENTS  17 

the  Storm  and  Stress  and  of  the  Gottingen  group — the 
young  Herder,  the  young  Goethe,  Schiller  during  the  first 
years  of  his  literary  career,  Lentz,  Holty,  the  two  Stolbergs 
and  others — had  been  fervent  pan-Germans;  but  their 
patriotism  referred  more  to  the  German  past  than  to  the 
German  present,  and  they  themselves  belonged,  with  the 
exception  of  the  young  Schiller,  to  the  preceding  decade. 
Among  the  lowest  classes  there  was  if  any  but  a  local  or 
provincial  patriotism.  The  common  theatre-going  public, 
it  is  true,  remained  in  the  eighties  as  susceptible  to  the 
Storm  and  Stress  spirit  as  it  had  been  in  the  seventies ;  yet 
the  numberless  knightly  dramas  which  swept  the  German 
stage  of  the  time  pleased  the  spectators  less  by  their  pat- 
riotism than  by  their  ponderous  sensationalism.  In  gen- 
eral, it  may  therefore  be  said  that  the  masses  were  rather 
void  of  pan-German  sentiment;  the  attachment  to  the 
province,  the  city,  or  the  state  preponderated  with  them. 
F.  K.  Moser,  the  Suabian  publicist  and  politician,  remarked 
shortly  after  the  close  of  the  Seven  Year's  War :  "Yes,  we 
have  a  national  spirit  as  we  have  wine-producing  terri- 
tories and  beer-producing  territories,  at  every  bend  of 
the  road  another  one."  In  a  similar  strain  Wieland  wrote : 
"There  are,  perhaps,  Miirckian,  Saxon,  Bavarian,  Wurtem- 
bergian,  Hamburgian,  Nurembergian,  Frankfortian  patri- 
ots and  so  on;  but  German  patriots  who  love  the  whole 
German  Empire  as  their  country  and  love  it  above  every- 
thing else,  ready  to  make  real  sacrifices  for  it,  where  are 
they?"  The  cultured  classes,  as  a  rule,  believed  in  cosmo- 
politanism :  they  considered  themselves  first  of  all  citizens 
of  the  world.  There  existed,  however,  important  sections 
in  this  group  which  were  less  cosmopolitan  than  particu- 
laristic. The  nobles,  for  instance,  thought  very  little  of  the 
citizenship  of  the  world;  but,  perhaps,  they  could  not  be 
called  cultured.  Winckelmann,  the  Goethe  of  that  time, 
Heinse  and  the  Romanticists  of  the  following  decade  were, 
in  a  way,  cosmopolitans  too;  Germany,  at  any  rate,  found 
little  favor  in  their  eyes,  being,  as  they  thought,  an  alto- 
gether too  Cimmerian  part  of  the  globe  and  no  home  for 


18  FBIEDRICH  GENTZ  [.504 

the  Graces.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  true,  each  of  them  would 
love  some  far-away  land  beyond  the  mountains,  ancient 
Greece,  Italy,  Spain,  India,  or  the  Orient  in  general,  which 
was  to  him  his  real,  his  own  country.  Leaving  these  sec- 
tions aside,  there  remained,  as  the  bulk  of  the  cultured 
classes,  the  out-and-out  rationalists;  and  they  were  un- 
doubtedly thorough  cosmopolitans — men  without  a  coun- 
try. In  Prussia  the  attachment  to  the  province  prepon- 
derated: the  Pomeranian  was  first  of  all  a  Pomeranian, 
and  the  Silesian  a  Silesian.  There  existed,  however,  also  a 
national  Prussian  spirit  and  that  semi-national  feudal 
bond  of  loyalty  which  connected  the  army  with  the  person 
of  the  king. 

The  French  prestige  still  suffered  from  the  blow  of  Ross- 
bach,  and  the  internal  conditions  of  France  were  not  such 
as  to  raise  it;  among  the  literati,  Lessing's  attacks  on  the 
French  drama,  too,  were  remembered.  Nevertheless,  the 
old  Gallomania  largely  continued ;  only  it  had  now  to  com- 
pete with  a  rival,  the  budding  German  Anglomania. 
Shakespeare  and  Ossian,  the  idols  of  the  Storm  and  Stress, 
disappeared,  it  is  true,  for  the  time  being,  from  the  literary 
horizon  together  with  the  windy  heaths  and  foggy  shores 
of  their  poetry;  and  likewise  the  great  king  felt,  in  his 
later  years,  none  too  kindly  towards  the  British.  But  it 
had  become  somewhat  the  fashion  to  learn  English,  and 
at  the  side  of  the  old  French  Mademoiselle  there  appeared 
now,  as  a  governess,  the  new  Anglo-Saxon  Miss.  Eng- 
lishmen were  more  frequently  seen  traveling  through  the 
country  and  they  found  that  reverential  treatment  which 
they  expected  and  which  they  obtained  far  into  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

German  public  opinion  was  not  yet  strongly  devel- 
oped, and  so  far  as  it  existed  it  was  rather  conservative. 
Nobody  seriously  thought  of  infringing  upon  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  "Empire."  The  system  of  limited  absolutism  was 
even  unanimously  recommended  by  the  rationalistic  polit- 
ical writers  of  the  time.  There  were  a  few  republicans, 
some  enthusiasts  for  liberty  in  general,  and  numerous  un- 


505]  EARLY  ENVIRONMENTS  19 

willing  tax-payers;  on  the  whole,  however,  the  spirit  of 
opposition  had  been  louder  in  the  seventies  than  it  was  in 
the  eighties.  The  condition  of  the  peasants  was  conceded 
by  many  to  be  hard  and  indefensible;  but  these  same  per- 
sons were  unwilling  to  endorse  the  abolition  of  the  nobility 
as  an  institution,  for  that  would  have  meant  a  revolution 
of  the  whole  existing  order  of  things.  They  favored  slight 
changes ;  at  the  same  time  they  considered  the  existence  of 
a  nobility  as  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  the  state,  appre- 
hending that  without  it  the  power  of  the  sovereign  might 
know  no  limits.  The  attitude  of  public  opinion  would  thus 
seem  to  have  been  unduly  submissive;  appearances,  how- 
ever, are  often  deceptive.  It  was  universally  and  most 
strongly  insisted  upon  by  all  the  rationalistic  writers 
on  political  science  that  the  rulers  held  their  offices  only  as 
a  trust,  to  be  administered  solely  for  the  common  weal; 
they  would  not  have  government  by  the  people,  but  they  de- 
manded government  for  the  people. 

Intellectually,  the  years  1780-1790  may,  as  regards 
Germany,  best  be  defined  as  a  period  of  transition.  The 
great  intellectual  movements  of  this  country  during  the 
eighteenth  century  were  rationalism,  pietism,  Empfindsam- 
keit  or  sentimentalism,  the  Storm  and  Stress,  Hellenism, 
philosophical  idealism  and  romanticism.  Of  these  ration- 
alism had  undoubtedly  been  the  most  powerful;  but  its 
force  was  spent  and  it  now  abated  visibly.  The  German 
pietism  continued  to  hold  its  position,  and  the  same  may  be 
said  about  the  German  Empfindsamkeit,  inasmuch  as  the 
latter  became  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  the  German  roman- 
ticism; both  of  them  were  essentially  German  movements 
and  thus  proof  against  the  flutter  of  fashion.  The  Storm 
and  Stress  began  to  decline  with  the  end  of  the  seventies. 
German  Hellenism  had  already  reached  its  first  zenith 
in  the  sixties;  now  it  was  to  experience  a  second  classical 
age.  The  year  1781  marked  the  beginning  of  the  new 
philosophical  idealism,  and  between  1786  and  1795  German 
romanticism  sprang  into  existence. 

The  European  movement  which  is  commonly  called 


20  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [506 

that  of  enlightenment  was  not  a  mere  intellectual  ten- 
dency; it  amounted  to  nothing  less  than  a  new  ideal  of 
civilization.  Its  three  main  principles  were  the  primacy 
of  reason,  utility,  and  humanity.  Reason  had  now  become 
the  supreme  judge  in  all  human  matters,  and  from  the  ver- 
dict of  this  judge  there  was  no  appeal;  about  that  every- 
body agreed.  But  what  was  to  be  understood  by  "reason"? 
Only  clear  logical  thinking,  or  certain  innate  ideas  and 
tendencies,  or  both?  Most  of  the  rationalists,  especially 
those  in  Germany,  favored  the  third  of  these  conceptions. 
They  talked  of  a  natural  religion,  of  natural  laws  and 
natural  rights,  indicating  by  the  epithet  "natural"  that 
disregard  for  these  ideals  was  tantamount  to  disobedience 
against  nature  itself;  and  to  bring  humanity  under  the 
sway  of  this  nature  was  to  them  a  most  sacred  duty.  The 
acceptance  of  the  authority  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  dogmas, 
the  reverence  for  history  and  for  tradition,  the  belief  in 
miracles,  religious  intolerance,  all  and  every  shade  of  mys- 
ticism, every  indulgence  in  sentiment,  and  the  whole  Mid- 
dle-Age were,  therefore,  stigmatized  as  so  many  aberrations 
of  the  human  mind.  The  cultivation  of  poetry  and  art  in 
general  they  tolerated  in  a  way ;  but  only  with  many  reser- 
vations. Art  was  then  little  cherished  in  Germany  and 
for  this  reason  left  alone.  Poetry,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
become  a  matter  of  great  interest  to  the  Germans  and  could, 
consequently,  not  very  well  be  ignored :  it  had  to  be  advised, 
and  thus  the  poets  were  gravely  told  that  passion  and 
sentiment  were  of  no  use  and  their  expression,  therefore,  of 
still  less;  that  every  poem  should  try  to  give  some  profit- 
able instruction  and  that  the  best  instruction  was  a  moral 
one.  A  certain  indefiniteness  clouded  the  third  of  the 
rationalistic  principles,  that  of  humanity.  It  could  mean 
the  ideal  of  developing  all  the  human  faculties,  or  the 
doctrine  of  altruism,  or  the  recommendation  of  milder 
habits  and  manners  in  general,  and  in  fact  it  did  mean  all 
this ;  the  individual  rationalistic  writer  might  have  in  view 
only  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  meanings,  but  rationalism 
as  a  whole  stood  for  all  of  them.  Much  enthusiasm  was 


507]  EARLY  ENVIRONMENTS  21 

manifested  for  the  perfection  and  progress  of  the  human 
race,  for  the  idea  of  international  fraternalism  and  for  re- 
ligious tolerance;  likewise  much  interest  was  shown  in  the 
promotion  of  industry  and  agriculture.  Few,  if  any,  would 
advocate  war  and  its  cause ;  war  was  declared  to  be  a  waste 
as  well  as  a  crime  and  unworthy  of  enlightened  men. 
Everybody,  on  the  other  hand,  believed  in  the  efficacy 
of  education;  training  was  everything:  able  men  were  not 
born,  they  were  made. 

Of  particular  interest  for  the  student  of  Gentz's  career 
is  the  position  of  the  German  author  of  the  time.  In  coun- 
tries like  England  and  France  an  author  in  those  days 
often  acquired  considerable  wealth  and  political  influence. 
In  Germany,  however,  he  was  poor  and  of  little  conse- 
quence in  matters  concerning  the  conduct  of  public  affairs; 
for  there  the  government  lay  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the 
rulers,  and  perhaps  the  only  German  writer  of  that  age 
who  wielded  any  real  influence  upon  them  was  Schlozer 
in  Gottingen.  If  the  conditions  were  favorable,  then  an 
author  might,  by  his  writings,  obtain  some  respectable  po- 
sition at  court  or  in  the  service  of  the  government,  as  was 
the  case  with  Goethe,  Wieland  and  Herder ;  but  that  could 
not  be  depended  upon.  Schubart,  for  instance,  never  at- 
tained any  such  recognition ;  Lessing  died  as  a  librarian  in 
the  world-forsaken  Wolfenbiittel ;  and  Schiller  was  at  this 
very  time  a  homeless  man,  wandering  from  place  to  place. 
Literary  careers  such  as  Voltaire's  in  France  could  then 
not  be  thought  of  in  Germany ;  even  that  of  Mallet  du  Pan 
in  the  pre-revolutionary  Paris  would  have  been  well-nigh 
impossible.  Yet  the  literary  career  had  after  all,  even  in 
Germany,  one  very  attractive  side :  it  was  the  simplest  and 
straightest  way  to  fame  and  to  popularity,  provided  that 
the  writer  knew  his  readers.  The  German  of  that  day  had 
little  interest  in  politics,  but  he  cared  very  much  for  poetry 
and  philosophy;  there,  then,  lay  the  golden  opportunity 
for  the  writers,  and  in  this  way  Klopstock,  Gellert,  Goethe, 
Schiller  and  Kant  had  become  the  favorite  sons  of  the 
nation. 


22  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [508 

2.    GENTZ'S  CHARACTER. 

To  what  extent  this  environment  helped  to  form 
Gentz's  character  is,  as  always  in  such  cases,  somewhat 
hard  to  say.  His  theories  without  a  doubt  were  influenced 
by  it  in  considerable  measure;  his  character,  however,  de- 
veloped more  independently.  Its  chief  characteristics 
were  probably  inborn,  for  they  remain  on  the  whole  as  fixed 
as  was  possible  amid  the  tumult  of  such  a  life  and  such  an 
epoch.  They  were  characteristics  affected  by  misfortune 
only  temporarily  at  most,  but  rather  susceptible  to  sick- 
ness and  age. 

Among  the  gifts  with  which  fate  had  endowed  this  re- 
markable personality,  a  fine  physique  was  not  the  least. 
Gentz  was  not  really  handsome;  he  possessed,  however, 
captivating  eyes  and  a  very  pleasant  voice.  His  vitality 
must  have  been  very  great  to  start  with,  for  despite  the 
magnificent  recklessness  with  which  he  spent  himself  in 
pleasure  and  in  work,  he  reached,  after  all,  well-nigh  the 
threshold  of  three  score  years  and  ten.  The  weak  point 
of  his  make-up  was  his  nerves.  He  easily  lost  patience 
and  was  fearful  of  any  uncertainty.  Wind,  rain,  and  above 
all  storms  were  highly  repulsive  to  him,  and  his  interest  in 
the  condition  of  the  weather  is  reflected  in  many  of  his 
letters.  What  he  loved  was  to  have  a  blue  sky  above  him, 
to  see  the  sun,  and  to  breathe  the  quiet  air;  and  when  he 
once  discovered  that  a  place  was  meteorologically  unsafe, 
then  no  amount  of  feminine  charms,  no  gathering  of  illus- 
trious names  could  make  him  stay  there.  The  restless  and 
at  times  wild  life  which  he  led  did  not,  however,  re- 
main without  consequences.  His  finances  were  almost  from 
the  start  in  hopeless  confusion ;  in  1814  his  health,  too,  be- 
gan seriously  to  suffer.  From  1825,  perhaps,  the  latter  be- 
came somewhat  improved;  but  the  old  strength  was  after 
all  gone,  and  at  last  death  came  as  a  consequence  of  general 
debility. 

Intellect  and  feeling  were  equally  developed  in  Gentz. 
Personalities  of  this  sort  are  able  to  avoid  the  threatening 


509]  CHARACTER  23 

inner  conflict  only  by  allowing  both  sides  of  their  natures 
to  express  themselves,  and  such  also  was  Gentz's  experi- 
ence. Until  1819,  he  was  firm  in  his  determination  to  sub- 
ordinate everything  to  the  judgment  of  reason;  nothing 
would,  however,  be  farther  from  the  truth  than  to  attempt 
to  term  him  on  this  account  a  rationalist  pure  and  and  sim- 
ple. Even  in  the  sphere  of  statesmanship,  the  emotions — 
confidence,  reverence,  benevolence  and  content — were  for 
him  factors  of  the  highest  significance,  and  likewise  did  he 
feel  sentiment  to  be  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the 
provinces  of  art  and  religion.  How  much  he  allowed  him- 
self to  be  influenced  by  emotions,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, in  his  moods  and  in  his  relations  with  other  peo- 
ple, will  be  seen  later.  More  correctly  could  we  call  Gentz, 
therefore,  a  sentimentalist  as  well  as  a  rationalist,  recog- 
nizing in  him  one  of  those  complex  natures  as  rich  as  they 
are  hard  to  define.  In  his  youth,  it  is  true,  Gentz  seemed  to 
give  little  promise  for  the  future,  if  we  are  to  credit  his 
oldest  biographer ;  a  good  boy,  amiable  and  easy-going,  with 
but  little  talent  if  not  actually  dull — so  the  estimates  of  him 
run.1  The  judgment  of  a  later  biography  is,  however, 
rather  different ;  according  to  it  the  young  Gentz  was  not  at 
all  dull,  and  well  thought  of  by  the  teachers  of  his  Gym- 
nasium in  Berlin.2  The  two  accounts  seem  contradictory, 
but  in  reality  both  are  credible ;  Gentz  may  have  been  easy- 
going at  home  and  active  at  school,  combining  within  him- 
self tendencies  for  pleasure  and  work  in  a  way  which  still 
persisted  in  later  years.  From  1793  on,  he  certainly  left  no 
doubt  as  to  his  mental  capacity,  astonishing,  we  may  well 
assume,  not  a  few  of  those  earlier  skeptics. 

One  of  the  prominent  features  of  Gentz's  character 
was  his  love  for  the  discussion  of  problems.  Orally  and  in 
writing,  in  treatises,  letters  and  official  notes,  he  gave  way 
to  this  passionate  pleasure;  in  the  broader  sense  of  the 
word,  he  argued  almost  all  his  life,  with  Kant  and  Hamann 

Warnhagen  von  Ense,  Galerie  von  Bildnissen  aus  Rahels  Umgang  und 
Briefwechsel,  II,  162. 

aSchmidt-Weissenfels,  Friedrich  Gents,  I,  8  f. 


24  FRIEDRICH   GENTZ  [510 

in  Konigsberg,  with  friends  such  as  von  Humboldt  and 
Adam  Muller,  with  the  Revolution,  with  the  hated  Cobenzl 
and  the  equally  detested  Napoleon,  in  short  with  well-nigh 
every  one  with  whom  he  came  into  positive  or  negative  con- 
tact. His  motives  in  this  were  sure  to  be  various.  One 
was  his  interest  in  the  analysis  of  problems  as  such,  to 
which  we  have  before  referred;  a  second  was  his  wish  to 
be  able  to  enjoy  his  dialectic  superiority ;  still  another  was 
his  endeavor  to  see  his  political  ideas  realized ;  a  fourth, 
finally,  was  the  great  sociability  of  his  nature.  With  his 
equals  he  was  in  these  discussions  open  and  direct;  with 
his  superiors,  on  the  other  hand,  Cobenzl  excepted,  truly 
deferential.  In  all  argumentation  he  was  concerned  with 
truth  alone.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  him  to 
defend  something,  of  the  correctness  of  which  he  was  not 
convinced;  for  that  he  was  far  too  honest. 

Closely  related  was  Gentz's  eminent  gift  of  social  con- 
versation. It  was  more  necessary  for  him  to  speak  than  to 
write,  and  he  loved  to  express  himself  fully  to  others  or 
to  chat  with  them  even  when  there  was  no  problem  at 
issue.  Whenever  he  was  in  the  proper  mood  he  could  talk 
very  seductively  and  fascinatingly,  and  the  fact  may  per- 
haps be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  he  found  entertainment 
among  men  as  attractive  as  among  women.  It  would  be 
incorrect  to  term  him  a  ladies'  man;  but  he  certainly  was 
a  master  in  social  intercourse  with  women,  particularly 
with  those  of  standing.  When  he  made  use  of  his  beauti- 
ful eyes,  when  his  gentle  voice  softly  flattered  the  ear, 
when  he  spoke  of  his  boundless  devotion  or  in  his  spirited 
fashion  discoursed  of  serious  things — then  he  must  indeed 
have  been  hard  to  resist.  The  circle  of  his  feminine  ac- 
quaintances was  therefore  large,  reaching  almost  to  the 
throne,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  without  this  gift  of  light 
as  well  as  of  substantial  conversation  Gentz  would  not 
have  attained  to  the  illustrious  social  position  in  Vienna, — 
a  position  which  meant  so  much  to  him  politically — that 
with  its  assistance  he  won  so  easily. 


511]  CHARACTER  25 

Speech  is  not  in  and  of  itself,  however,  of  equal  im- 
portance with  thinking;  mere  words  are  cheap,  but  clear, 
deep,  and  original  thinking  is  by  no  means  so.  TTow 
was  Gentz's  intellect  in  this  regard?  It  must  be 
granted  that  he  was  no  intellectual  pioneer;  he  was  orig- 
inal, perhaps,  in  nothing  save  the  combination  of  the  quali- 
ties which  he  embodied,  and  this  he  too,  honest  as  ever,  has 
himself  granted.  To  Rahel,  his  particular  confidant,  he 
wrote  in  1803 :  "You  are  a  ceaselessly  producing  nature,  I 
am  a  ceaselessly  receptive  one ;  you  are  a  great  man,  I  am 
the  first  of  all  women  who  ever  lived.  This  I  know :  had  I 
been  physically  a  woman,  I  should  have  brought  the  earth 
to  my  feet.  I  have  never  discovered  anything,  never  com- 
posed anything,  never  made  anything.  I  am  more  electrical 
than  metal  and  just  for  this  reason  a  conductor  of  electric- 
ity without  a  second.  My  receptivity  is  quite  boundless."3 
Gentz  was,  however,  not  at  all  on  this  account  purely  re- 
ceptive. He  read  much  and  in  this  way  accumulated  ma- 
terial from  all  sides.  This  material  he  carefully  arranged 
and  moulded  into  a  pleasing  form,  the  latter  point  receiving 
much  of  his  attention.  If  many  of  his  treatises  are  not- 
withstanding not  easily  readable,  this  is  not  due  to  any 
lack  of  clearness  of  logic,  but  to  the  abundance  of  material ; 
clear  writing  is  often  clear  because  superficial,  whereas 
Gentz  was,  if  anything,  thorough.  And  not  thorough  alone, 
but  likewise  objective,  even  in  the  midst  of  the  battle.  He 
would  have  none  of  that  extremely  convenient  principle 
that  there  are  two  sides  to  every  question;  to  him  a  ques- 
tion might  have  many  sides  and  ramifications,  but  there 
was  only  one  truth  and  that  truth  was  obligatory  upon  all. 
To  assume  that  truth  could  be  established  by  a  majority, 
by  the  judgment  of  public  opinion  or  moreover  by  the  will 
of  the  common  people  was  in  his  eyes  both  an  absurdity 
and  a  crime.  Principles  of  this  sort  he  considered  empty 
phrases;  and  of  these  he  was  the  most  irreconcilable  foe. 
A  very  valuable  intellectual  peculiarity  which  Gentz  pos- 

'Schlesier,  I,  113. 


26  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [512 

sessed  was,  moreover,  his  undoubted  brilliancy.  The  ani- 
mation of  his  mind,  his  many-sided  interests,  his  wealth  of 
ideas — secondary  and  not  original,  it  is  true — his  ability 
to  use  these  ideas  quickly  and  fitly,  the  artistic  quality  of 
his  conversation,  and  an  undeniable  humor — all  these 
combine  to  give  him  a  claim  to  be  called  brilliant.  In  this 
respect  he  was  without  question  an  exceptional  figure. 

As  regards  the  other  sides  of  Gentz's  character  there 
is  not  a  little  that  could  be  mentioned,  for  Gentz  was  any- 
thing but  narrow  and  dull.  He  was  possessed  of  much  nat- 
ural good-nature,  much  independence  of  spirit,  and  much 
restlessness;  besides,  he  was  endowed  with  an  elasticity 
of  temperament  which  kept  him  youthful  almost  to  the 
the  last.  He  liked  sensation  when  not  too  strong.  He 
deviated  not  a  hair's  breadth  from  his  principles;  on  the 
other  hand,  he  was  entirely  lacking  in  military  spirit  and 
feared  noisy  crowds,  unknown  faces,  age,  and  death.  For 
nature,  especially  for  his  beloved  mountains,  the  "silent, 
icy"  peaks  of  the  Alps  as  he  calls  them,  he  always  felt  a 
warm  affection,  not  unlike  that  of  a  boy  who  comes  home 
for  a  few  days'  vacation ;  but  above  this  unadulterated  na- 
ture he  still  placed  that  artistically  beautiful  nature  of 
the  kind  that  one  meets  with  in  architecturally  planned  gar- 
dens. In  many  regards  he  was  a  romanticist  in  the  sense 
of  the  two  Schlegels,  although  he  expressed  himself  not  in- 
frequently in  a  rather  disparaging  way  concerning  the 
younger  of  the  brothers  and  concerning  Tieck.  He  was 
a  romanticist  in  his  inner  wealth  of  life,  his  warmth  of 
feeling,  his  reverence  for  the  feminine,  his  exalted  levity, 
his  sense  of  the  poetical  and  his  love  for  nature,  in  his 
occasional  need  of  solitude,  in  his  reverence  for  the  past 
and  in  his  catholic  tendencies,  or  rather  in  the  combination 
of  all  these  qualities.  If  we  were  to  name  a  single  and 
comprehensive  characteristic  which  above  all  he  had  in 
common  with  the  Schlegels,  it  would  be  his  antipathy  to- 
ward whatever  was  commonplace  and  philistine.  His  ap- 
preciation of  reason  and  understanding,  his  energy  and 


513]  CHARACTER  27 

cheerfulness,  as  well  as  his  interest  in  politics  were,  it  is 
true,  quite  unromantic  features  of  his  make-up. 

Gentz  could  apparently  not  until  late  in  life  dispense 
with  social  intercourse.  Along  with  his  occupation  with 
politics,  it  was  for  him  the  salt  of  life.  The  equipment  for 
playing  a  role  in  social  life  he  possessed  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  thing,  noble  birth ;  and  this  was  unfortunately 
a  point  to  which  at  that  time  especial  importance  was  at- 
tached. It  was  therefore  necessary  for  him  to  make  up 
for  the  deficiency,  as  far  as  this  was  possible,  by  falling 
back  upon  other  personal  distinctions  which  were  available 
and  useful  to  this  end.  What  helped  Gentz  here  most,  be- 
yond doubt,  was  the  thoroughly  aristocratic  character 
of  his  whole  nature.  Intercourse  with  people  who  stood 
outside  the  sacred  circles  of  high  life  was  under  certain 
circumstances  very  attractive  to  him,  his  intimate  relations 
with  Adam  Mtiller  and  others  testify  to  this;  but  his  real 
atmosphere  was,  after  all,  the  perfumed  air  of  the  drawing- 
room.  His  love  of  comfort,  his  absolute  light-heartedness, 
his  sense  of  the  artistic,  the  gentleness  of  his  manners,  his 
egotism  and  his  ambition  forced  him  thither,  or  at  any  rate 
away  from  the  common  crowd ;  he  belonged  to  the  elite  and 
wanted  to  belong  to  them,  intellectually,  socially  and  polit- 
ically. We  know  how  completely  successful  he  was  in  this 
endeavor;  that  he  was  so,  however,  especially  the  man- 
ner in  which  he  succeeded  in  gaining  entree  into  the  very 
exclusive  circles  of  the  high  Austrian  nobility  and  in  estab- 
lishing there  a  place  for  himself,  will  always  be  a  circum- 
stance for  wonder  to  him  who  knows  the  laws  and  habits  of 
this  West-End  of  Europe.  With  time,  it  is  true,  when  he 
had  drunk  long  enough  from  this  cup  of  bliss  and  that  old 
age  which  he  feared  so  much  was  gradually  drawing  on, 
his  love  for  society  life  waned  very  considerably. 

In  the  final  analysis,  Gentz  had,  after  reaching  full 
manhood,  three  fundamental  ideas :  influence,  pleasure,  and 
justice;  the  first  two  governed  his  life  in  general,  the  third 
his  political  theories  in  particular.  He  wished  to  play  a 
r61e  in  the  world  and  felt  that  he  had  the  power  within 


28  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [514 

himself  to  do  so;  and  this  rdle  was  to  be  principally  that 
of  statesman.     But  he  did  not  entertain  such  ambitions 
from  the  start.    To  Elizabeth  Graun,  one  of  his  first  loves 
but  by  no  means  his  last,  he  writes  in  1785  in  a  perfectly 
bucolic,  Rousseau-like  manner:     "Life  with  four  or  five 
excellent  people  but  without  compulsion,  without  restraint 
in  the  most  unconfined,  happy  freedom  of  nature,  limited 
by  no  considerations  of  ceremony,  embittered  by  no  fear 
of  misconstruction,  furthermore  in  the  quiet  bosom  of  sweet, 
sweet  nature — wouldn't  that  be  the  only  thing  which  could 
make  such  people  as  we  are  happy?    But  tell  me,  would 
we  wish  more,  would  we  not  gladly  leave  all  the  vain  show 
of  the  world  of  fools,  all  the  money  to  Jews,  all  the  learning 
to  the  schools  and  look  from  our  little  happy  circle  into  the 
big  world    ...     as  occupants  of  a  good,  quiet  warm 
room  looking  out  into  the  autumnal  country,  where  the 
evening    wind    in    a    cold,  cold  rain  drenches  the  fallen 
leaves?"4     Already  in  1802,  however,  he  expresses  him- 
self to  Brinckmann,  then  in  Berlin  as  envoy  from  Sweden 
and  always  one  of  his  closest  friends :  "My  hour  has  struck ; 
the  course  of  my  long,  long  youth  is  ended ;  I  renounce  the 
abundance  of  life's  pleasures  and  consecrate  myself  to  the 
serious  activity  of  my  head,  which  is  still  young.     I  shall 
henceforth  lead  a  cooler,  more  tasteless  but,  I  strongly 
hope,  more  uniform  and  harmonious  life;  and  upon  the 
ruins  of  all  my  old  inclinations  and  passions  and  pleasures 
there  shall  be  erected  nothing  but  ambition  for  true  fame, 
and  a  certain  pride,  which  heretofore  has  been  but  re- 
pressed for  that  which  really  lies  hidden  in  the  depths  of 
my  soul  beneath  a  quite  foreign  exterior,  shall  be  exalted."5 
In  1826  he  likewise  endorses  the  word  of  Johannes  von 
Miiller,  the  Swiss  historian:  "Surely  a  single  good  idea, 
contributed  at  some  time  in  life  at  a  peace  negotiation  or 
in  some  other  important  transaction  is  of  greater  influence 
than  the  arrangement  of  a  whole  archive."6     Next  to  or 

'Brief e  v.  it.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  I,  67  f. 
'Ibid.,  II,  100. 
•Schlesier,  IV,  287. 


515]  CHARACTER  29 

perhaps  parallel  with  this  ambition  stood  Gentz's  love  of 
pleasure,  of  pleasures  high  and  low.  He  was  a  born  mas- 
ter of  the  art  of  living,  knowing  how  to  get  out  of  life  all 
there  was  in  it.  "He  who  expects  to  enjoy  always,  never 
enjoys ;"  "  the  sum  of  all  wisdom  is:  make  use  of  the  pres- 
ent !" ;  "let  us  live,  live  and  not  merely  exist" — so  he  writes 
as  early  as  1785  to  Elizabeth  Graun;7  and  he  lived  in  ac- 
cordance with  this  doctrine  then  as  well  as  later.  The 
third  of  his  fundamental  ideals,  that  of  justice,  was,  as  we 
have  already  noted,  significant  directly  only  for  his  political 
theories;  since,  however,  his  theories  in  turn  very  strongly 
influenced  his  political  activity,  the  actual  extent  of  this 
ideal  was  in  his  case  much  greater.  From  it,  above  all,  he 
derived  the  ever-glowing  fire  of  passion  and  energy  which 
characterizes  his  fight  against  the  Revolution  and  Napol- 
eon; but  he  had  it  to  thank  too  for  many  hours  of  deep 
sorrow.  It  was  a  help  to  him,  but  also  a  burden  and  a 
ballast  wich  seriously  handicapped  his  actions,  as  high 
principles  are  so  likely  to  do  if  closely  adhered  to. 

Gentz  was  a  born  politician,  as  he  has  been  called,  only 
in  part.  Ambition,  interest  in  politics,  the  needed  social 
talents  and  a  knowledge  of  the  diplomatic  language  of 
French  he  possessed ;  other  quite  as  important  traits  of  the 
true  statesman,  however,  he  lacked.  Above  all  he  was  not 
what  the  Germans  term  a  Rcalpolitiker,  at  least  not  until 
1813.  He  saw  everywhere  only  questions  of  right,  but  in 
politics  power  is  the  chief  matter.  Furthermore,  he  was 
not  cool  enough.  The  warmth  and  sensibility  of  his  na- 
ture, in  itself  an  attractive  trait  of  his  character,  stood 
here  in  his  way.  He  inclined  to  strong  sympathies  and 
antipathies  and  could  not  break  off  old  intimacies  or  form 
new  ones  as  quickly  as  the  political  constellation  of  the 
hour  would  require;  likewise  he  easily  lost  his  patience 
and  felt  ill  at  ease  in  the  face  of  the  unknown.  Metternich 
was  not  so  far  wrong  when  he  remarked  that  Gentz  was 
always  inclined  "to  view  situations  in  the  most  lurid 

^Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  73. 


30  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [516 

colors  and  to  leap  from  extreme  hope  to  extreme  despair."8 
A  man  with  nerves  like  these  and  a  temperament  like  his 
was  indeed  not  to  be  employed  as  an  independent  force  in 
foreign  policies.  Lastly,  Gentz  lacked  entirely  the  gift 
of  dissimulation;  he  could  of  course  keep  his  peace,  but 
hypocrisy  was  entirely  foreign  to  his  nature.9 

Gentz's  lack  of  these  particulars  had,  however,  also  its 
good  aspects;  it  made  of  him  a  remarkable  if  not  a  great 
publicist,  and  it  is  a  strange  thing  that  he  should  naturally 
have  been  most  suited  to  the  very  activity  for  which  there 
was  at  least  place  in  the  political  system  of  his  maturity. 
For  the  masses  he  never  wrote ;  he  had  in  view  the  educated 
classes  and  for  this  reason  did  not  shun  thoroughness.  His 
style  is  always  clear  and  apt,  and  often  picturesque  and 
dramatic,  as  for  instance  in  many  of  his  letters  and  espe- 
cially in  his  memoir  to  Archduke  John.  And  yet,  in 
spite  of  these  qualities  Gentz  cannot  be  called  the  greatest 
German  publicist  of  his  time,  for  beyond  question  this 
place  was  held  by  Joseph  Gftrres. 

3.    GENTZ'S  POLITICAL  THEORIES. 

The  most  important  sources  of  Gentz's  political  activ- 
ity were  undoubtedly  his  political  theories,  and,  on  that 
account  they  now  require  an  especial  treatment.  This 
treatment,  it  is  true,  will  be  neither  entertaining  nor  sim- 
ple, for  an  uncommonly  unfavorable  situation  has  to  be 
faced  in  this  case.  Although  he  was  possessed  of  a  clear 
and  systematic  mind,  yet  Gentz  was  not  a  professional 
teacher  of  law  and  thus  never  arrived  at  any  really  con- 
nected presentation  of  his  political  ideas;  in  1792,  1794- 
1795  and  1799-1800  he  makes,  it  is  true,  certain  attempts  in 
this  direction.  On  the  other  hand,  Gentz  was  by  no  means 
a  mere  pamphleteer ;  he  always  writes  after  a  careful  con- 
sideration and  with  no  little  knowledge  of  the  subject, 

*Metternich-Klinkowstr6m,  Osterreichs  Theilnahme  an  den  Befreiungs- 
kriegen,  599,  note. 

*Varnhagen  von  Ense,  Galerie  von  Bildnissen  aus  Rahels  Uingang, 
und  Briefwechsel,  II,  182. 


517]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  31 

trying  above  all  to  convince  his  readers  by  reasons.  The 
presentation  of  the  political  thoughts  of  a  man  of  his  type 
must,  therefore,  necessarily  be  extensive  as  well  as  compli- 
cated. 

We  have  no  reason  to  assume  that  Gentz  interested 
himself  in  questions  of  public  law  even  while  a  student 
in  the  Gymnasium.  Presumably,  he  came  first  in  contact 
with  them  at  Konigsberg,  where  he  probably  attended 
Kant's  course  on  the  law  of  nature  and  certainly  familiar- 
ized himself  with  the  doctrines  of  the  school  of  natural 
law.  There  he  likewise  became  acquainted  with  Garve's 
edition  of  Cicero's  De  Officiis10  and  with  Rousseau;  how- 
ever, it  can  not  be  ascertained  whether  the  latter's  political 
writings  at  that  time  entered  into  his  vision.  We  are  only 
slightly  informed  as  to  the  years  immediately  following 
Gentz's  stay  at  Konigsberg;  we  know  this  that  he  read 
another  work  of  Garve's,  the  treatise  on  the  connection  of 
morals  and  politics.11  From  1790  on,  we  are  somewhat 
better  informed;  Gentz  now  takes  up  once  more  the  study 
of  Montesquieu  and  devours  everything  that  he  can  get 
hold  of  as  regards  pamphlets  and  newspapers  dealing  with 
the  Revolution.12 

The  rationalistic  doctrine  of  natural  law,  Cicero,  Gar- 
ve,  Montesquieu  and  perhaps,  also  Rousseau  then  formed, 
so  far  as  we  know,  the  reading  material  from  which  the 
young  Gentz  drew  his  political  ideas.  In  order  to  under- 
stand the  latter  it  will,  therefore,  be  neccessary  first  to 
study  the  former. 

At  the  times  when  Gentz  studied  at  Konigsberg,  the 
German  law  faculties  were  almost  completely  under  the 
sway  of  the  school  of  natural  law;  the  positive  law  made 
itself  felt  only  later.  The  natural  law  in  its  turn  was 
essentially  nothing  but  the  application  of  the  general  ra- 
tionalistic tendencies  to  the  sphere  of  political  life  and 
thought;  its  standpoint  coincided  with  that  of  ordinary 

wBriefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  140  f. 
nlbid.,  I,  146. 
"Ibid.,  I,  182,  179  f. 


32  FRIEDKICH   GENTZ  [518 

rationalism,  that  is,  with  the  recognition  of  the  primacy 
of  reason.  From  this  general  basis  the  natural  law  pro- 
ceeded, however,  to  the  construction  of  a  system  of  indi- 
vidual ideas,  the  most  important  of  which  were  the  follow- 
ing: the  placing  of  the  natural  above  the  positive  right; 
the  emphasizing  of  the  cultural  aims  and  problems  of  the 
human  race ;  the  supposition  of  a  state  of  nature ;  the  der- 
ivation of  organized  society  from  a  fictitious  or  historic 
social  compact;  the  distinguishing  between  the  subject 
of  sovereignty  and  its  administrator;  the  assertion  of  the 
right  of  removing  incompetent  or  bad  rulers;  the  identi- 
fication of  state  duties  with  the  protection  of  law  and  the 
advancement  of  the  general  welfare;  the  proclaiming  of 
inalienable  rights  of  man ;  the  basing  of  international  law 
on  reason,  treaties  and  usage;  the  drawing  of  a  parallel 
between  the  relations  of  citizens  and  states ;  the  supposition 
of  a  universal  state  comprising  all  nations ;  finally  the  con- 
demning of  war  as  a  falling  back  into  the  state  of  nature  or 
into  barbarism,  and  a  general  tendency  toward  progress. 
The  most  important  of  these  ideas  was,  perhaps,  that  of 
the  world  state,  of  a  stocietas  of  the  nations  or  of  a  civitas 
maxima.  It  is  found  with  most  of  the  advocates  of  natural 
law  and  is  conceived  by  them  in  analogy  with  the  notion  of 
the  individual  state :  its  executive  is  resting  with  the  total 
of  the  separate  nations,  its  laws  are,  above  all,  the  precepts 
of  reason  and  its  supreme  court  of  justice  is  formed  by  the 
public  opinion  of  the  world.  It  would,  however,  be  difficult 
to  say  how  far  this  universal  state  was  considered  really 
to  exist  and  to  what  extent  it  was  a  mere  fiction;  to  men 
like  Wolf  it  represented  no  reality,  but  others  believed  in  it 
so  seriously  that  they  even  demaned  the  abolition  of  the 
existing  states.13 

The  political  ideas  of  Cicero  are  found  especially  in  his 
work  De  Officiis,  that  is,  in  that  with  which  the  young 
Gentz  familiarized  himself.  Since  it  probably,  as  will  be 
seen  later  on,  exercised  a  particularly  strong  influence  up- 
on the  latter,  it  may  be  best  to  quote  the  most  characteristic 

MCf.  p.  20  f. 


319]  POLITICAL   THEORIES  33 

passages  of  this  work  of  Cicero's;  they  are  the  following.14 
"Whatever  is  virtuous  arises  from  some  one  of  these  four 
divisions,  for  it  consists  either  in  sagacity  and  the  per- 
ception of  truth ;  or  in  the  preservation  of  human  society, 
by  giving  to  every  man  his  due,  and  by  observing  the  faith 
of  contracts;  or  in  the  greatness  or  firmness  of  an  elevated 
and  unsubdued  mind ;  or  in  observing  order  and  regularity 
in  all  our  words  and  in  all  our  actions,  in  which  consists 
moderation  and  temperance"  (I,  5).  "We  ought  to  regard, 
to  cultivate,  and  to  promote  the  good  will  and  the  social 
welfare  of  all  mankind"  (1,41).  "The  most  extensive  sys- 
tem is  that  by  which  the  mutual  society  of  mankind,  and  as 
it  were,  the  intercourse  of  life  is  preserved.  Of  this  there 
are  two  parts:  justice,  in  which  virtue  displays  itself  with 
the  most  distinguished  lustre  and  from  which  men  are 
termed  good;  and  allied  to  this,  beneficence,  which  may 
likewise  be  termed  benevolence  or  liberality"  (I,  6). 
"That  one  virtue,  justice,  is  the  mistress  and  queen  of  all 
virtues"  (III,  6).  "There  are  two  kinds  of  injustice;  the 
first  is  of  those  who  offer  an  injury,  the  second  of  those 
who  have  it  in  their  power  to  avert  an  injury  from  those 
to  whom  it  is  offered,  and  yet  do  it  not"  (1,7).  "The 
foundation  of  justice  is  faithfulness,  which  is  perseverance 
and  truth  in  all  our  declarations  and  in  all  our  promises" 
(I,  7).  "Nothing  is  more  disgraceful  than  insincerity" 
(I,  42).  "The  main  cause  why  most  men  are  led  to  for- 
getfulness  of  justice  is  their  falling  into  violent  ambition 
after  empire,  honours,  and  glory"  (I,  8).  "There  is  a  man 
for  you  who  aspired  to  be  king  of  the  Romans  and  master 
of  all  nations,  and  accomplished  it — if  anyone  says  this 
desire  is  an  honest  one,  he  is  a  madman"  (III,  21).  "No 
vice  is  more  foul  .  .  .  than  avarice,  especially  in  great 
men,  and  such  administer  the  republic"  (II,  22).  "The 
knowledge  and  contemplation  of  nature  is  in  a  manner  lame 
and  unfinished,  if  it  is  followed  by  no  activity ;  now  activity 
is  most  perspicuous  when  it  is  exerted  in  protecting  the 

"From  the  translation  by  C.  R.  Edmonds,  London,  1865. 


34  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [520 

rights  of  mankind"  (I,  43).  "It  is,  therefore,  more  ser- 
viceable to  the  public  for  a  man  to  discourse  copiously, 
provided  it  is  to  the  purpose,  than  for  a  man  to  think  ever 
so  accurately  without  the  power  of  expression"  (I,  44). 
"Those  acts  which  are  done  in  a  timid,  humble,  abject  and 
broken  spirit  .  .  .  are  inexpedient  because  they  are 
scandalous,  foul  and  base"  (111,32).  "The  administration 
of  a  government,  like  a  guardianship,  ought  to  be  directed 
to  the  good  of  those  who  confer,  and  not  of  those  who  re- 
ceive the  trust"  (I,  25).  "Nor  indeed  is  this  forbidden  by 
nature  alone — that  is  by  the  law  of  nations — but  is  also 
in  the  same  manner  enacted  by  the  municipal  laws  of 
countries  .  .  .  that  it  should  not  be  lawful  to  injure 
another  man  for  the  sake  of  one's  own  advantage"  (III,  5). 
"This  is  the  peculiar  concern  of  a  state  and  city,  that  every 
person's  custody  of  his  own  property  be  free  and  undis- 
turbed" (II,  22).  "The  desertion  of  the  common  interest 
is  contrary  to  nature"  (II,  6).  "The  interest  of  each  indi- 
vidually and  of  all  collectively  should  be  the  same"  (III, 
6).  "Equality  of  rights  has  ever  been  the  object  of  de- 
sire; nor  otherwise  can  there  be  any  rights  at  all"  (II,  12) . 
"Equality  ...  is  entirely  subverted,  if  each  be  not 
permitted  to  possess  his  own"  (II,  22).  "As  to  actions 
resulting  from  the  customs  of  civil  institutions  of  a  people, 
no  precepts  can  be  laid  down;  for  those  very  institutions 
are  precepts  in  themselves"  (I,  4).  "Wars  .  .  .  are 
to  be  undertaken  for  this  end  that  we  may  live  in  peace 
without  being  injured"  (I,  11).  "Our  magistrates  and 
generals  sought  to  derive  their  highest  glory  from  this 
single  fact  that  they  had  upon  the  principles  of  equity 
and  honor  defended  their  provinces  and  allies"  (II,  8). 

If  we  compare  these  ideas  with  the  corresponding  ones 
of  the  natural  law,  their  similarity  will  become  immedi- 
ately apparent:  here  as  well  as  there,  we  find  the  belief 
in  the  cultural  ideals  of  the  human  race  and  in  the  exist- 
ence of  a  bond  embracing  all  nations,  the  differentiation 
between  state  and  ruler,  the  emphasizing  of  the  promotion 
of  the  general  welfare,  the  drawing  of  a  parallel  between 


521]  POLITICAL   THEORIES  35 

state  and  international  duties  and  the  rejection  of  offen- 
sive wars.  It  is  true,  there  exists  no  complete  harmony 
between  the  two  doctrines — Cicero  demands  equality,  he 
respects  established  institutions  and  customs,  he  knows  of 
no  natural  rights  in  the  special  sense  of  the  word  and 
favors,  of  course,  a  republican  form  of  government,  while 
the  doctrine  of  natural  law  takes  an  almost  opposite  stand 
on  all  these  points — yet,  these  differences  are  in  themselves 
of  no  great  importance  and  remained  almost  unknown  to 
the  eighteenth  century.  In  fact,  so  little  was  the  period 
conscious  of  them  that  many  rationalists  would  claim  the 
Roman  orator  and  statesman  as  one  of  their  own;  suffice 
it  to  mention  here  the  names  of  Hume,  Voltaire,  Mirabeau, 
Robespierre,  and  Garve. 

The  translator  and  editor  of  Cicero,  Garve,  must  to 
a  certain  degree,  be  considered  a  rationalist ;  he  could,  how- 
ever, be  called  an  eclectic  philosopher  almost  as  well.  He 
rejects  dogmatism  and  declares  that  not  the  theory  alone, 
but  the  theory  coupled  with  a  careful  consideration  of 
actual  conditions  should  determine  the  form  of  govern- 
ment and  the  framing  of  laws.  Whether  politics  may 
successfully  be  connected  with  morals,  he  does  not  dare  to 
decide  being  of  the  opinion  that  a  satisfactory  answer  to 
that  could  not  be  given.  The  smaller  states,  he  thinks, 
must  yield  to  the  vital  interests  of  the  larger  ones;  at  the 
same  time,  however,  he  asserts  that  the  rulers  should 
consider  it  their  duty  to  advance  the  welfare  of  all  human- 
ity. The  most  important  duty  of  the  government  is,  accord- 
ding  to  him,  the  protection  of  the  law;  he  is  not  averse  to 
moderate  progress  and  a  certain  degree  of  liberty,  but  ob- 
jects to  a  complete  abrogation  of  the  privileges  of  the  no- 
bility. He  looks  with  admiration  upon  England  and  in  the 
beginning  sympathetically  greets  the  Revolution. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  Rousseau  was  the  idea 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  which  he  holds,  however, 
in  a  quite  unique  way:  he  demands  that  this  sovereignty 
be  exercised  directly  and  without  the  division  of  the  pow- 
ers. Montesquieu,  on  the  other  hand,  advocated  the  latter 


36  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [522 

and  saw  in  the  British  constitution  the  model  for  every 
other  constitution. 

We  have  little  direct  information  as  to  what  political 
theories  the  young  Gentz  held.  From  a  letter  to  Garve  of 
October,  1784,15  we  may  infer  that  he  had,  at  that  time, 
become  acquainted  with  the  translation  of  the  Officiis; 
"an  excellent  book",  he  writes,  "which  exercised  a  very  im- 
portant influence  upon  my  moral  principles,  my  way  of 
thinking  and  my  character".  Whether  this  influence 
emanated  from  Cicero  himself  or  rather  from  the  notes  and 
treatises  of  Garve's  edition  cannot  be  said  definitely ;  it  is, 
however,  probable  that  it  proceeded  from  the  former,  for 
some  years  later  Gentz  begins  to  raise  objections  to  Garve 
and  to  raise  them  from  a  rationalistic  and  Ciceronian 
standpoint.  At  the  beginning  of  October,  1789,  he  writes 
to  Garve  that  the  principles  of  morals  and  of  philosophy 
are  most  valuable  when  practically  applied,  an  idea  that 
the  year  before  had  been  declared  by  the  latter  to  be  open  to 
criticism.16  At  the  end  of  October,  1789,  Gentz  makes 
further  attacks  on  Garve  and  they  contain  the  first  direct 
utterances  which  we  have  from  him  on  questions  of  public 
law.17  It  is,  he  asserts,  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  there 
was  ever  a  state  of  nature,  for  the  existence  natural  to 
mankind  is  one  regulated  by  contracts.  Through  contracts 
rights  are  created,  and  where  there  are  rights  there  are 
also  duties.  The  latter  may  be  divided  into  two  kinds, 
those  of  compulsion  and  those  of  moral  obligation ;  both  of 
these  are  the  precepts  of  reason,  but  only  the  fulfillment  of 
the  former  can  be  enforced.  The  capacity  for  fulfilling  the 
duties  of  compulsion  is  justice,  that  for  fulfilling  the  duties 
of  moral  obligation  beneficence  or  benevolence.  Gentz  does 
not  recognize  any  rights  based  solely  on  superior  power, 
for  this  would  be  antagonistic  to  reason  and  reason  is  to 
him  the  highest  judge.  Likewise  he  will  not  allow  the  ruler 
to  treat  the  state  as  his  property ;  the  ruler,  he  declares,  is 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  i,  140  f. 
"Ibid.,  I,  144. 
"Ibid.,  I,  148  ff. 


523]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  37 

only  "the  first  servant"  of  the  state  and  subject  to  the  ver- 
dict of  the  people.  The  states  themselves,  however,  he  be- 
lieves to  be  moral  personages;  they  stand  toward  one  an- 
other in  relations  identical  to  those  between  private  citizens 
and  are,  therefore,  bound  by  mutual  obligations.  Further  re-- 
marks date  back  to  the  year  1790.  In  one  of  them  Gentz 
speaks  with  considerable  emphasis  of  the  rights  of  the  peo- 
ple without,  however,  pointing  out  which  particular  rights 
he  is  thinking  of.18  Others  are  found  in  the  treatise  Uber 
den  Ur sprung  dcr  obersten  Prinzipien  des  Rechts.™  Reason 
and  liberty,  so  Gentz  now  assumes,  form  the  true  nature  of 
mankind ;  reason,  again,  is  the  faculty  of  having  ideas  and 
represents  the  highest  and  original  source  of  rights.  The 
ideas  of  reason  pertaining  to  law  are  inalienable  and, 
therefore,  called  the  "original  rights  of  mankind" ;  of  such 
ideas  there  are  three:  the  common  individual  right  over 
one's  self,  the  right  of  property,  and  the  right  of  main- 
taining contracts. 

In  short,  Gentz's  political  system  would  then,  accord- 
ing to  this,  until  1790  be  the  following :  the  chief  elements 
of  the  human  nature  are  reason  and  liberty ;  reason  is  pri- 
marily the  faculty  of  ideas  and  as  such  the  source  of  positive 
law;  the  precepts  of  reason  are  compulsory  to  all,  even 
when  dealing  with  foreign  nations,  and  the  most  import- 
ant of  them  are  those  of  justice  and  benevolence;  finally, 
the  ruler  is  nothing  but  the  mandatory  of  the  popular  will 
and  accountable  to  its  forum. 

The  years  1791  and  1792  were  of  special  importance 
for  Gentz's  inner  development.  Unfortunately  the  course 
of  this  development  is  rather  unknown,  for  Gentz's  corre- 
spondence with  Garve — the  best  source  of  information 
about  his  earlier  political  theories — is  missing  beyond 
April,  1791;  we  know,  however,  that  during  this  period 
Gentz  did  considerable  reading,  likewise  that  he  watched 
the  events  in  France  with  great  interest  and  was  gradu- 
ally losing  his  sympathies  with  the  cause  of  the  Revolu- 

ulbid.,  I,  158. 

"Forschungen  sur  brand-  und  fireuss.  Geschichte,  XIX,  18  f. 


38  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [524 

tion.20  In  the  beginning  of  1793  Gentz  appeared  with  the 
first  of  his  many  anti-revolutionary  writings,  the  trans- 
lations of  Burke's  Reflections,  to  which  he  added  notes, 
and  five  political  treatises  from  his  own  pen.21 

Burke  has  certain  points  in  common  with  rationalism ; 
fundamentally,  however,  he  is  little  of  a  rationalist.  He 
practically  knows  no  social  compact  and  explains  the  orig- 
in of  the  state  from  the  desire  to  get  protection  for  existing 
contracts  and  agreements.  The  first  obligation  of  the  state 
he  sees  in  this  protection  of  rights,  the  second  in  "benevo- 
lence" or  in  the  advancement  of  the  general  welfare.  There 
is,  according  to  him,  no  inborn  right  of  equality ;  he  would 
rather  consider  the  state  in  the  light  of  an  association  in 
which  every  member  partakes  of  the  profits  in  proportion 
to  his  investment.  He  considers  freedom,  in  general,  as  a 
matter  of  small  importance;  the  absolute  freedom  of  the 
state  of  nature  is  inconceivable  to  him  in  organized  so- 
ciety, but  at  the  same  time  lie  advocates  as  little  restric- 
tion of  liberty  as  possible.  Any  right  of  participating  in 
government  he  denies,  reserving  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs  to  wealth,  noble  birth  and  talent;  likewise  he  re- 
pudiates the  tendency  towards  constructing  constitutions 
at  will ;  for  these,  in  his  opinion,  must  grow  and  cannot  be 
fabricated.  He  strongly  attacks  the  principle  that  every- 
body is  naturally  qualified  to  govern,  maintaining  that 
government  is  an  art  or,  at  best  a  trade  which  must  be 
learnt  like  every  other.  Were  we  to  ask  him  in  what  his 
ideal  of  a  well -governed  state  consisted,  he  would  answer : 
in  the  conception  of  a  state  in  which  order,  prosperity, 
propriety,  the  protection  of  law  and  property,  confidence 
in  the  government,  and  respect  for  the  established  order  of 
things  form  the  fundamentals  of  the  community. 

Gentz  began  to  read  Burke  in  April,  1791.  At  first  he 
liked  only  the  latter's  style,22  but  in  the  introduction  to  his 
translation  of  Burke's  work  on  the  French  Revolution  he 

"Cf.  P.  57  f. 

"Weick,  MI. 

*Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  203  f. 


525]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  39 

declares  himself  to  be  in  harmony  also  with  the  princi- 
ples of  the  author.23  His  political  theories  at  about  the  be- 
ginning of  1793  are  then,  according  to  him,  those  of  Burke, 
After  1792,  these  theories  develop  but  little;  they  may 
undergo  slight  changes,  as  for  instance  in  1814  and 
again  in  1819,  but  on  the  whole,  they  are  stationary.  They 
form  a  unit;  they  must,  therefore,  be  treated  as  such,  and 
the  following  pages  will  try  to  present  them  in  this  form. 

The  first  problem  which  confronts  us  here  is  the  very 
difficult  question  whether  Gentz  must  be  classed  with  the 
rationalistic  or  with  the  positive-historic  school  of  law. 
He  has  been  claimed  by  both  sides,  and  in  reality  he  belongs 
to  both  schools :  in  his  fight  against  the  Revolution  he  pro- 
ceeds more  from  positive-historical  points  of  view,  while 
he  bases  his  opposition  to  Napoleon  chiefly  on  a  rational- 
istic line  of  reasoning. 

Those  who  see  in  him  more  the  adherent  of  the  law 
of  nature  refer,  of  course,  to  such  passages  in  his  works 
as  those  in  which  the  primacy  of  reason  is  explained.  There 
are,  it  is  true,  many  utterances  of  this  kind  in  Gentz ;  how- 
ever, if  we  analyse  them  closely,  they  do  not  always  actu- 
ally contain  what,  at  the  first  glance,  they  seem  to  mean. 
Besides,  there  could  be  mentioned  an  equally  large  num- 
ber of  passages  expressing  a  positivistic  point  of  view.  If 
we  wish  to  arrive  at  a  clear  understanding  of  Gentz's  atti- 
tude in  this  regard,  we  have,  therefore,  to  proceed  with  the 
greatest  caution  and  accuracy. 

In  the  treatises  of  the  year  1793,  Gentz  speaks  of  the 
"deduction  of  the  pure  notions  of  law",  of  the  "precepts 
of  the  law  of  nature",  of  "original  rights",  of  the  "specific 
rights  of  mankind"  and  of  "original  natural  rights";24 
likewise,  well-known  teachers  of  the  law  of  nature,  such 
as  Grotius  and  Pufendorf,  are  mentioned  and  referred  to 
as  authorities.25  Furthermore,  we  hear  in  1795  that  the 

"Weick,  I,  20  f. 

MIbid.f  II,  76  f.,  39,  87,  89  ff. 

*Ibid.,  II,  77. 


40  PRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [526 

idea  of  the  community  of  mankind  is  "a  fiction  of  reason 
striving  for  perfection"  and  the  notion  of  the  human 
perfectibility,  "an  idea  founded  on  reason  as  firmly  as  the 
idea  of  a  supreme  being,  or  of  an  unending  existence  of  the 
substances".26  In  1800  we  find  the  remark  that  eternal 
peace  is  demanded  by  reason,  and  that  order  and  lawful- 
ness are  the  symptoms  of  reason.27  In  1793  Gentz  declares 
that  the  advocates  of  the  old  order  of  things  have  to  turn 
to  reason ;  similiarly  he  explains  in  1800  and  again  in  1809, 
that  it  is  advisable  to  order  constitutions  grown  up  his- 
torically according  to  the  demands  of  logic  and  reason.28 
Even  in  1817,  he  writes  to  Adam  Miiller :  "Concerning  all 
which  can  be  recognized  by  reason  there  must  be  an  appeal 
to  reason,  that  is,  to  individual  reasoning.  .  .  .  Ex- 
plain it  as  you  like,  my  first  impulse  will  always  be  that  of 
an  appeal  to  my  reason."29 

In  all  these  passages,  Gentz  clearly  takes  the  stand 
of  a  rationalist.  He  is,  however,  not  less  emphatic  in  up- 
holding the  cause  of  the  positive-historic  law.  In  1799  lie 
calls  the  question  regarding  the  lawfulness  of  an  action 
the  first  and  most  important  of  all;30  lawful,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  declares  in  1800  to  be  equivalent  to  whatever 
the  sovereign  commands.31  At  the  same  time  he  demands 
that  no  laws  should  be  created  which  are  likely  to  infringe 
upon  existing  rights;32  likewise,  he  sees  the  main  purpose 
of  the  social  compact  in  the  protection  of  the  agreements 
and  contracts  entered  into  during  the  state  of  nature  and 
in  organized  society.33  He  recognizes,  in  a  general  way, 
natural  rights  until  about  1800,  and  as  such  he  considers 
the  right  of  liberty,  property,  self-defense,  and  of  adherence 

"Ibid.,  V,  211. 

"H.  J.,  1800,  III,  713,  7i8,  771- 

*Ibid.,  I,  112  f.    Aus  dem  Nachlasse,  I,  298. 

^Briefw.  zw.  Fr.  Gents  u.  A.  H.  Miiller,  238  f. 

*H.  J.,  1799,  II,  309  ff. 

"Ibid.,  1800,  I,  18. 

**Ibid.,  I,  7,  30,  1799;  II,  142. 

"  Cf.  p.  43- 


527]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  41 

to  contracts,  while  he  rejects  a  natural  right  of  equality 
and  of  personal  safety;34  yet  he  maintains  as  early  as 
1793  that  states  cannot  be  constructed  on  the  basis  of 
human  rights  and  that  these  general  rights  are  not  inalien- 
able. Very  emphatically  he  asserts  in  the  treatise  TJbcr  die 
Deklaration  der  Rechte :  "That  the  human  being  in  entering 
into  company  with  equals  gives  up  part  of  its  original 
rights  only  in  order  to  enjoy  the  remainder  in  safety  and 
to  have  the  total  of  its  manifold  aims  advanced, — upon 
that  everybody  agrees".35  At  all  events,  the  natural  and  the 
civil  rights  are  for  him  fundamentally  different,36  and  in 
1800  he  declares,  therefore,  that  there  are  no  rights  of 
man  any  more  as  soon  as  there  are  state  rights;37  in  1809 
he  even  goes  a  step  farther  calling  all  talk  about  inborn 
rights  mere  nonsense.38 

The  chaos,  then,  seems  to  be  complete.  If  we  wish  to 
clear  it,  we  will  have,  first  of  all,  to  remember  the  particu- 
lar notion  of  reason  existing  and  prevailing  at  the  time 
when  Gentz  entered  the  years  of  his  maturity.  At  present, 
reason,  in  general,  simply  means  the  understanding  or  the 
faculty  of  logical  thinking.  The  rationalism  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  however,  understood  by  reason  not 
only  the  latter,  but  also,  and  preeminently  so,  an  assumed 
faculty  of  having  ideas.  Until  Kant,  the  linguistic  usage 
did  hardly  distinguish  between  the  words  "reason"  and 
"understanding",  using  both  of  them  interchangeably.  In 
a  certain  sense,  this  practice  was  continued  even  later  on ; 
in  general,  however,  Kant  succeeded  in  introducing  his 
differentiation  between  ,the  two  terms,  and  after  him 
"reason"  meant  then  more  or  less  the  faculty  of  ideas.  Gentz 
uses  the  word  "reason"  in  the  old  sense  as  well  as  in  the 
new,  and  in  this  lies  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  seeming 

"Weick,  II,  89  f.,  86.  H.  J.,  1800,  I,  6  f. 
"Weick,  II,  63. 

"/&»</.,  II,  89  fi.  H.  J.,  1800,  I,  75  f- 
"H.  J.,  1800,  I,  61. 
"Ans  dcm  Nachlasse,  I,  294. 


42  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [528 

confusion  referred  to  above.  For  instance,  when  he  declares 
that  the  man  of  conservative  tendencies  has,  in  defending 
his  standpoint,  to  turn  to  reason,  when  he  recommends  the 
rational  construction  of  constitutions  or  tells  Adam 
Miiller  that  an  appeal  to  reason  will  always  be  his  last  and 
decisive  act,  he  has  undoubtedly  in  mind  nothing  but  the 
understanding.  A  further  cause  of  this  confusion  is 
Gentz's  attitude  in  passages  speaking  of  reason  as  of  the 
faculty  of  forming  ideas;  in  those  he  unquestionably  ap- 
pears, to  a  certain  degree,  as  a  rationalist.  Yet,  his  ration- 
alism is  never  without  a  tinge  and  is  coupled  with  other  ten- 
dencies. The  ideas  or  commandments  of  reason  are  for 
Gentz,  as  we  shall  see  later  on,39  since  1793  in  general  mere 
ideals  ranking  as  such  after  the  positive  law;  at  times, 
however,  they  represent  to  him  also  strictly  binding  or- 
ders and  then  they  are  in  rank  co-ordinate  with  any  posi- 
tive law.  Within  the  sphere  of  state  law  he  places  the 
positive-historic  law  invariably  first,  and  there  the  pre- 
cepts of  reason  have  for  him  no  other  meaning  than  that 
of  ideals.  In  the  sphere  of  international  law  he  generally 
considers  the  ideas  of  reason  in  the  same  light;  now  and 
then,  however  he  places,  in  this  case,  the  rational  law  at 
the  side  or  even  before  the  law  established  by  treaties  or  by 
usage.  His  ultimate  aim  seems  to  be  the  transforming  of 
all  rational  into  positive  law. 

Among  the  precepts — or  ideals — of  reason  that  of  the 
progress  toward  the  perfection  of  the  human  race  was  for 
Gentz  during  a  number  of  years  the  most  important.  It 
is  found  especially  in  his  treatises  of  1 793-1795 ;  after  1800 
we  hear  little  more  of  it.40  The  individuals,  the  state  and 
the  totality  of  the  states,  so  Gentz  demonstrates  often  and 
with  particular  emphasis,  combine  to  advance  this  ideal: 
the  individuals  by  devoting  themselves  to  their  calling,  the 
state  by  protecting  the  law  and  promoting  productive  labor, 
and  the  totality  of  the  states  by  cultivating  the  bonds  of 

"Cf.  p.  49. 

"Weick,  II,  22  f. 


529]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  43 

intercourse  and  mutual  good  will  existing  between  them.41 
Yet,  in  spite  of  his  enthusiasm  for  human  progress  Gentz 
was  never  blind  to  the  disadvantages  and  dangers  usually 
connected  with  such  growth,42  and  this  feeling  grew  upon 
him  more  and  more,  until  it  finally  almost  broke  up  his  en- 
thusiasm for  the  cause  of  human  culture.  As  early  as  1805, 
he  calls  himself  an  opponent  rather  than  a  friend  of  pro- 
gress ;  and  this  he  continued  to  be  until  his  death,  although 
he  always  demanded  the  cultivation  of  the  spirit  of  fellow- 
ship and  mutual  consideration.43 

Gentz  even  in  1789  doubts  whether  there  ever  was  a 
state  of  nature ;  he  repeats  his  doubt  in  1793.44  He  seems 
to  believe,  however,  in  the  existence  of  a  social  compact, 
at  least  up  to  1800,45  and  we  may  say  that  his  conception 
of  this  compact  lies  about  half-way  between  the  strictly 
rationalistic  and  the  historic  point  of  view.  The  mainten- 
ance of  the  unlimited  freedom  of  the  state  of  nature,  Gentz 
asserts,  or  the  introduction  of  equality  cannot  have  been 
the  aim  of  the  social  compact;46  the  right  of  self-defense* 
was  even  abolished  by  it.47  But  what  did  this  compact  then 
really  aim  at?  It  meant,  answers  Gentz,  the  renouncing 
of  a  part  of  the  natural  rights  in  order  to  enjoy  the  rest 
more  fully  and  satisfactorily,48  the  protection  of  the  indi- 
vidual, positive  rights  acquired  by  contracts  before  or 
during  the  alleged  social  compact,49  the  advancement  of 
the  manifold  problems  of  humanity,50  the  establishing  of  a 
supreme  legislature  and  executive  authority,51  and  the 

"Ibid.,  V,  193,  note ;  II,  24.    H.  /.,  1799,  HI,  447,  477- 

^Veick,  V,  190  ff.    H.  J.,  1800,  III,  730  f.,  747- 

"Schlesier,  IV,  176  f. 

"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  I,  148  f.  Weick,  II,  64. 

«//.  /.,  1800,  I,  4;  HI,  768,  772  f. 

"Cf.  p.  46  f. 

4IWeick,  II,  90  f. 

"Ibid.,  II,  63. 

"Ibid.,  II,  88.  H.  J.,  1800,  I,  5- 

"Weick,  II,  9,  63. 

"H.  /.,  1799,  HI,  280  ff.,  302. 


44  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [530 

creation  of  a  constitution  and,  by  that,  of  a  nation.52  Gentz 
does  not  acknowledge  any  right  of  the  individual  to  declare 
the  social  agreement  null  and  void;  he  reserves  it  to  the 
totality  of  the  contracting  parties  acting  as  a  united  poli- 
tical body.53  The  mandate  given  to  the  supreme  authority 
forms,  according  to  him,  a  part  of  the  social  compact  it- 
self and  lasts,  on  account  of  that,  as  long  as  the  latter;51 
consequently,  it  cannot  be  recalled  or  abolished  separately. 

A  wholly  different  theoretical  basis  for  the  authority 
of  the  state  is  given  by  Gentz  in  1809,  and  it  is  probable 
that  this  new  theory  from  then  on  and  even  earlier  formed  a 
part  of  his  political  system  in  general.  It  is  formulated  by 
him  as  follows :  "To  consider  the  monarch  as  the  proprietor 
of  the  state  (in  the  sense  in  which  some  private  citizen  may 
be  called  the  owner  of  his  estate)  is  an  indefensible  and  un- 
dignified idea.  It  is  true,  the  state  is  intrusted  to  the  mon- 
arch ;  but  only  in  the  interest  of  the  people  shall  he  admin- 
ister it;  and  the  transference  takes  place  not  by  virtue  of 
a  common,  miserable  contract,  which  can  be  terminated  at 
will  by  any  of  the  parties ;  to  treat  the  state  like  a  leasehold 
estate  .  .  .  is  a  blunder  of  such  inexcusable  magnitude 
that  compared  with  it  the  idea  of  some  of  the  older  pol- 
iticians assuming  a  divine  right,  a  power  handed  over  to  the 
monarch,  as  it  were,  by  God  himself  appears  not  only  to  be 
endurable  but  even  attractive.  The  state  is  neither  the  pro- 
perty of  someone,  nor  an  object  of  the  whims  of  the  people ; 
it  is  an  everlasting  community  to  bind  together  by  inde- 
structible ties  the  present,  the  past  and  the  future;  and  in 
this  sense  it  is  of  God".55 

The  duty  of  the  state  is  for  Gentz,  in  general,  identi- 
cal with  the  purpose  of  the  social  compact:  it  consists,  in 
the  maintenance  of  order  and  peace,  in  the  assurance  of  a 
certain  amount  of  liberty,  in  the  protection  of  law  and  in 

"Ibid.,  Ill,  282;   I,  488  f. 
"Weick,  II,  46,  H.  /.,  1799,  III,  288  f. 
"H.  J.  1799,  III,  282  f. 
"Aus  dein  Nachlasse,  I,  288. 


531]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  45 

the  advancement  of  the  general  welfare.50  The  introduc- 
tion of  equality  is  excluded  from  it.57  Of  these  duties  the 
most  important  are  the  two  last  named,  or,  as  Gentz  says, 
the  duties  of  "natural  justice"  and  of  "moral  perfection".38 
They,  again,  rank  acording  to  their  worth  in  such  manner 
that  the  protection  of  law  stands  in  the  first  place,  the  pro- 
motion of  the  general  welfare,  however,  in  the  second  place, 
and  in  establishing  this  scale  Gentz  deviates  from  ration- 
alism more  than  anywhere  else.  "Law",  he  says,  "is  the 
fundamental  basis  of  social  existence  and  the  supreme  rule 
of  the  state.  The  public  weal  is  a  great  ideal,  but  compared 
with  law,  it  is  subordinate".59  The  rights  which  he  de- 
sires to  be  preserved  by  government  are — and  it  is  im- 
portant to  keep  this  in  view — less  the  general,  natural 
rights  retained  in  organized  society,  than  the  individual 
rights  based  on  special  contracts;60  of  these,  again,  the 
right  of  property  is  the  most  important.61  Gentz  assumes 
that  their  fulfillment  is  of  general  interest  and  asserts  more 
than  once  that  the  common  welfare  and  the  welfare  of  the 
individual  are  identical.02  Of  course,  he  does  not  fail  to 
admit  that  a  state  governed  according  to  these  principles 
may  appear  harsh;  but  that  cannot  be  changed.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  finds  that  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  laws 
makes  their  observance  considerably  easier;  "to  do  what 
is  right",  he  declares,  "may,  under  such  circumstances, 
often  become  hard  and  injurious,  .  .  .  but  to  know 
what  duty  requires  will,  at  least,  be  no  riddle."63 

As  to  the  form  of  government,  Gentz  shows  a  good 
deal  of  indifference  towards  all  formulas,  believing  that 
none  of  them  will  give  full  guarantee  of  just  laws  and  of  a 

"Weick,  I,  55  ff.,  90;  V,  3  f.  H.  /.,  1799,  III,  301  f.,  312;  1800,  I, 
29  ff.,  116  f. 

"Weick,  II,  86  f.  H.  J.  1800,  I,  5  ff. 

"Weick,  II,  46. 

WH.  J.,  1800,  I,  30. 

"Weick,  II,  63  f.,  88,  98.  H.  J.,  1799,  HI,  301  ff.,  310  ff. ;  1800,  I, 
4  ff.,  30  ff. 

"Weick,  II,  199,  90. 

"Ibid.,  V,  3,  193- 

"Ibid.,  II,  56. 


46  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [532 

rigorous  enforcement  of  existing  regulations.64  He  lays, 
therefore,  more  stress  on  sagacity  and  experience65  and  is 
insistent  only  on  that  nothing  but  the  law  shall  be  author- 
itative in  the  state.66  In  reality,  it  is  true,  Gentz  is  less 
indifferent  towards  the  form  of  government  than  he  often 
pretends  to  be.  At  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  the  French 
Revolution  and  at  any  rate  until  1794,  he  considers  the 
then  existing  British  constitution  as  the  best  imaginable 
and  would  like  to  see  other  constitutions  being  shaped  after 
it.67  In  1799  we  find  him  in  irresolute  oscillations:  inci- 
dentally he  still  points  to  the  British  constitution  as  a 
model;68  but  at  th?  same  time  he  remarks  that  the  purely 
monarchical  form  of  government  is  as  good  as  any  other.69 
After  1800  he  comes  out  more  and  more  openly  for  the 
system  of  enlightened  absolutism;  from  then  on  he  is,  at 
any  rate,  the  untiring  foe  of  democracy. 

If  the  ideas  of  liberty,  equality  and  sovereignty  of  the 
people  may  be  called  the  fundamental  principles  of  democ- 
racy, what  was,  then,  Gentz's  attitude  towards  them? 

Liberty  as  such  is  to  him  no  political  ideal  in  the  pro- 
per sense  of  the  word.70  In  the  state  of  nature,  he  declares, 
everybody  was  free,  even  absolutely  free;  in  organized  so- 
ciety, however,  only  restricted  liberty  is  possible.  There, 
the  one  form  of  liberty  which  is  indispensable  is  the  absence 
of  arbitrariness  or  despotism  and  the  rule  of  the  law.  A 
greater  amount  of  liberty,  Gentz  thinks,  would  be  injurious 
to  the  true  interests  of  the  state ;  for  no  government,  so  he 
asserts  repeatedly  and  emphatically,  can  be  efficient  and 
beneficial,  except  it  be  strong  and  centralized.71 

"Ibid.,  I,  112.  Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  conclusion.  H.  J.  1799,  I. 
490  ff.,  Ill,  283,  286. 

"Weick,  I,  112,  note;  II,  9,  40,  88.    H.  /.,  1799,  III,  286  f. 

mH.  J.,  1799,  I,  489;  III,  284, 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  22,  note,  33,  note. 

*H.  J.,  1799,  III,  448,  note. 

"Ibid.,  I,  498. 

"Weick,  II,  86  ff.,  120;  V,  197,  note.    H.  J.,  1800,  I,  77  ff. 

"Weick  II,  12.  H.  J.,  1799,  I,  298*?.;  II,  55,  457;  1800,  I,  121  ff.,  165 
f.,  336;  II,  457-  Weick,  II,  56.  H.  J.,  1800  I,  196,  341  I- 


533]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  47 

Equality72  is  rejected  by  Gentz  in  the  most  absolute 
way,  if  equality  of  rights  is  meant ;  it  is,  on  the  other  hand, 
accepted,  if  it  means  equal  protection  of  acquired  rights. 
The  first  he  calls  the  "objective",  and  the  second  the  "sub- 
jective" equality. 

The  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  of 
all  democratic  doctrines  the  most  hateful  to  Gentz,  because 
it  is  the  most  important  and  far-reaching.  He  denies  any 
right  of  participation  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  any 
alleged  natural  ability  to  govern,  any  possibility  of  find- 
ing out  what  the  popular  will  demands  and  consists  of, 
any  right  of  the  citizens  to  criticize  the  laws  of  the  state 
from  the  basis  of  general  principles,  in  short,  everything 
that  has  been  said  about  and  in  favor  of  this  hated  doc- 
trine.73 To  him  government  is  an  art  requiring  talent  and 
training  as  much  as  any  other  art,74  and,  on  account  of 
that,  he  would  reserve  the  right  of  cultivating  this  art  to 
the  sovereign  of  the  state,  to  his  officials,  to  noble  rank,  to 
wealth,  in  a  certain  sense  also  to  talent.75  Summing  up 
his  objections  he  remarks  in  1809 :  "The  sovereignty  of  the 
people  is  the  wildest,  most  wicked,  most  dangerous  of  all 
chimeras".76 

Gentz  does  not,  as  might  be  expected,  assume  that 
there  is  anything  like  complete  justice  to  be  found  admin- 
istered even  in  the  best  of  the  existing  states;77  but  he 
denies,  nevertheless,  any  right  of  withdrawing  from  the 
social  contract,  so  long  as  not  all  the  participants  are  ready 
to  do  so.  A  right  of  revolution  is  neither  rejected  nor 
acknowledged  by  him;78  as  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  he 
dislikes  revolutions  most  heartily.  He  abhors  the  idea  of 

"Weick,  II,  85  ff.,  107  ff. ;  V,  199.    H.  J '.,  1800,  I,  5  ff.,  83. 

nH.  J.,  1799,  III,  292  ff.  Weick,  I,  112  note.  Translation  of  Mallet 
du  Pan,  20  f.,  note,  101,  note,  89  note.  H.  J.,  1800,  I,  76. 

T4Weick,  II,  9,  12  f . ;  V,  4,  193,  note. 

"Ibid..  I,  99,  note,  23  ff.,  44  ff.;  II,  136  ff.,  13  ff.;  IV,  75  ff.  H.  /.,  1800, 
I*  26.  Mhn.  et  left,  intd.,  87. 

"Aus  dem  Nachlasse,  I,  288. 

nH.  J.,  1800,  III,  777. 

T*Weick,  II,  35  ff. 


48  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [534 

removing  a  ruler  and  bases  his  attitude  in  this  regard  on 
the  theory  that  the  ruler's  mandate  lasts  as  long  as  the  so- 
cial contract  itself,  that  is,  as  he  expects,  forever.  He 
preaches  obedience  and  confidence  to  those  who  are  gov- 
erned, and  a  paternal  consideration  of  the  common  weal  to 
those  who  govern;  or,  to  use  his  own  words,  he  demands 
"on  the  part  of  the  people  respect  and  confidence,  on 
the  part  of  the  authorities  generosity  and  firmness, 
strength  and  benevolence,  frankness  and  paternal  care".79 
Progress  there  must  be,  of  course ;  but  this  progress  should 
be  slow  and  never  too  incisive.  In  1799  he  still  adheres 
to  the  programme  of  "conserving  by  improving";80  by  the 
end  of  1805  he  declares,  however,  that  although  wishing 
for  a  balance  between  the  forces  of  conservation  and  pro- 
gress he  was,  at  the  present  time,  working  exclusively  in 
the  interests  of  the  first.81 

Gentz  uses  not  unfrequently — as  he  does  especially  in 
1804  and  1805 — expressions  like  "eternal  laws",  "eternal 
principles",  "divine  and  human  rights",  "most  sacred  prin- 
ciples", or  the  like,  and  exhorts  the  princes  as  well  as  the 
people  to  stand  up  for  the  defense  of  such  rights  and  prin- 
ciples.82 What  he  understands  by  them  will  become  evident 
when  we  consider  that  he  apparently  uses  the  words  "foun- 
dations of  the  social  order"  and  "principles  of  public  order 
and  morality"  as  synoyms  of  the  expressions  named  above ; 
according  to  this,  he  would,  then,  use  the  latter  in  order  to 
designate  the  ideas  of  his  political  system  in  general. 

If  we  turn  to  Gentz's  views  on  international  law  and 
international  politics,  we  hit,  first  of  all,  upon  the  idea  of 
a  world  state.  We  know  that  Gentz  favors  close  commer- 
cial and  cultural  relations  between  the  civilized  nations  ;83 
but  he  speaks  also  of  a  "general  state",  a  "confederation  of 
states",  a  "grande  association  que  tons  les  petiples  civilises 

nH.  ].,  1799,  I,  104. 

"Ibid.,  II,  143. 

"Schlesier,  IV,  176  f. 

"Mtm.  et  left,  ined.,  14  f.,  31,  38,  81,  86. 

"Cf.  p.  42  f. 


535]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  49 

forwent  entre  eux"'  or  a  "communio  emmentissima"  of  the 
nations,84  and  the  question  arises,  therefore,  what  he  really 
means  by  using  such  terms.  In  other  words:  was  the 
world  state  for  Gentz  a  fact,  a  legal  fiction,  or  a  mere  ideal 
of  reason?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  by  no  means  easy. 
In  general  Gentz  alternates  these  three  conceptions;  in 
particular,  however,  he  probably  favours  most  the  idea 
of  the  universal  state  as  a  mere  goal  to  be  attained  by  the 
gradual  extension  of  international  law  based  upon  treaties. 
How  much  he  alternated  in  this  regard  may  be  seen 
from  the  fact  that  he  considers  the  establishment  of  a  fed- 
eration of  the  states — first  of  all  of  those  of  Europe — to  be 
a  mere  ideal  in  1799  and  in  1800,  that  he  treats  it  as  an 
actual  fact  in  1805,  rejects  it  entirely  in  1809,  and  seems  to 
take  it  to  be  a  fact  once  more  in  1813. 

As  regards  the  individual  rights  and  duties  of  the 
states  in  dealing  with  one  another  Gentz  mentions,  above 
all,  the  right  of  independence,  of  safety,  and  of  honour, 
together  with  the  duty  of  international  justice.85  The  lat- 
ter consists  for  him,  however,  not  only  in  doing  no  wrong, 
but  also — and  this  is  important — in  helping  others  to  get 
what  is  due  to  them  ;80  most  emphatically  he  declares  it  to 
be  the  duty  of  each  and  every  state  to  render  assistance  to 
those  who  are  forced  to  defend  their  rights. 

Gentz  knows  of  three  means  through  which  he  expects 
the  maintenance  of  an  international  state  of  conditions  in 
which  the  law  is  reigning  supreme;  they  are:  international 
congresses,  the  preservation  of  the  balance  of  power  among 
the  European  nations,  and,  as  the  ultima  ratio,  war. 

In  itself  Gentz  would  have  liked  nothing  more  than 
to  see  every  European  complication  settled  peacefully  and 
by  means  of  congresses;  but  for  that  the  time  was  too 

"Weick,  II,  192,  195;  IV,  69;  V,  6,  8,  195.  H.  J.,  1799,  I,  405.  Mem. 
et  lett,  incd.,  86.  Metternich-Klinkowstrom,  Osterreichs  Theilnahme  an 
den  Befreiungskriegen,  251. 

KFournier,  Gentz  und  Cobenzl,  278,  282,  284.  Weick,  IV,  66  ff.,  note; 
V,  8.  Aus  dent  Nachlasse,  I,  301. 

"Fournier,  Gents  und  Cobenzl,  287.     Mem.  et  lett.  incd.,  86. 


50  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [536 

stormy,  and  thus  he  refers,  before  1815,  to  this  mode  of 
settlement  extremely  seldom.87 

The  maintenance  of  the  balance  of  power  was  for  him 
an  idea  to  which  he  clung  all  his  life  because  he  believed 
that  he  had  found  in  it  a  panacea  for  all  international 
complications  ;88  he  defines  it  as  the  grouping  of  the  small- 
er powers  in  such  way  as  to  neutralize  the  forces  of  a  para- 
mount state  and  sees  in  it  the  real  aim  of  the  art  of  diplo- 
macy. Should  it  prove  to  be  impossible  to  create  or  to 
utilize  properly  this  balance  of  power  toward  the  protec- 
tion of  international  rights,  then — but  only  then — diplo- 
macy must  give  way  to  force.  The  ultima  ratio  of  all  re- 
lations between  the  different  states  is,  therefore,  for  Gentz 
too:  war;89  he  considers  it  as  being  justifiable  not  only  if 
waged  for  the  defence  of  a  country,  but  also  if  undertaken 
in  order  to  suppress  dangerous  movements  outside  one's 
own  state,  and  proclaims  a  formal  law  of  intervention.90 

So  much  for  the  political  theories  of  Gentz.  There  re- 
mains, however,  one  question  to  be  answered,  which,  until 
now,  has  received  almost  no  attention.  If  the  political 
theories  of  Gentz,  as  has  been  said  above,  formed  the 
basis  of  his  fight  against  the  Revolution  and  Napoleon, 
then  they  naturally  must  have  been  older  than  this  fight; 
the  problem  which  confronts  us  now  would,  therefore,  be 
this:  were  Gentz's  theories  really  older  than  his  struggle, 
or  did  they  not  rather  originate  during  the  conflict? 

It  must  be  admitted  that  this  question  allows  of  no 
solution  which  would  be  entirely  proof  against  objections. 
Approximate  solutions  of  it  are,  however,  quite  possible, 
and  they  will,  ultimately,  have  to  rest  on  our  knowledge 
of  Gentz's  relations  to  Cicero. 

A  priority  of  the  political  theories  held  by  Gentz  to  his 
struggle  against  the  Revolution  can  not  be  shown  from 

"Mem.  et  lett.  ined.,  63. 
"Weick,  II,  195.    H.  ].,  1800,  III,  757  ff. 

"Weick,  I,  68;  II,  152  ff.;  V,  7.    H.  /.,  1800,  III,  775  f.,  782  ff. 
*°Weick,  II,  194  ff.    Metternich-KHnkowstrom,  Osterreichs  Theihiahme 
an  den  Befreiungskriegen,  251  ff. 


537]  POLITICAL  THEORIES  51 

any  of  his  earliest  utterances,  for  there  is  not  a  sufficient 
number  of  them.  Neither  has  the  fact  that  Gentz  knew 
and  admired  Montesquieu,  Rousseau,  Garve  and  Burke 
any  bearing  on  the  question;  to  admire  a  political  system 
does  not  necessarily  mean  to  accept  it,  and  even  by  grant- 
ing this,  we  would  only  admit  that  Gentz,  at  that  time, 
had  accepted  the  political  ideas  of  these  men  and  could  not 
have  had,  just  for  this  reason,  his  own  ideas  of  1793  and 
the  following  years  which  were  rather  different.  The 
same  may  be  said  concerning  his  study  of  natural  law  at 
Konigsberg  and  at  Berlin. 

The  attempt  to  establish  this  priority  would,  then, 
have  to  be  abandoned,  had  we  not  at  our  disposal  one  bit 
of  evidence  which  appears  to  be  more  or  less  convincing: 
Gentz's  knowledge  and  admiration  of  Cicero  of  which  he 
himself  informs  us.  We  know  that  he  had  read  the  latter's 
work  De  officiis  even  before  1789  and  that  he  speaks  of 
the  great  influence  which  it  had  had  upon  his  mind  and  his 
character  ;91  in  1790,  he  even  incidentally  mentions  that  the 
book — probably  in  the  Garve  edition — forms  part  of  his 
meager  library.92  Furthermore,  in  1793  and  in  1794,  he 
refers  to  or  quotes  the  Roman  as  an  authority.93  We  have, 
therefore,  sufficient  indications  to  permit  the  hypothesis 
that  Gentz,  before  1789,  had  been  essentially  influenced 
and  guided  by  Cicero,  and  only  incidentally  by  other  poli- 
tical thinkers.  But  it  is  just  these  ideas  of  Cicero's,  as 
the  above  citations  show,94  which  are  fundamentally  iden- 
tical with  those  held  by  Gentz  before  and  after  the  year 
1789.  Comparing  the  two  we  may,  then,  conclude  that 
the  political  system  of  the  latter  did  antedate  his  political 
struggle,  in  so  far  as  this  is  possible  in  complicated  his- 
torical questions. 

And  on  this  hypothesis  Gentz's  attitude  after  1790 
will  cease  to  be  a  riddle  which  it  must  otherwise  always 

MCf.  p.  36. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  164. 

"Weick,  I,  258  f.,  note.    Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  21,  note. 

"Cf.  p.  33  f. 


52  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [538 

be  in  our  eyes.  As  will  be  seen  later,  Gentz  was,  in  the  be- 
ginning, a  friend  of  the  Revolution  who  was  enthusiastic 
about  the  sacred  principles  of  liberty  and  equality.  Such 
enthusiasm  he  could  not  have  developed  on  the  basis  of  the 
teachings  of  natural  law,  for  this  stood  for  the  omnipo- 
tence of  the  government  and  the  preservation  of  the  aris- 
tocracy; but  such  a  course  would  be  thoroughly  permis- 
sible from  the  Ciceronian  viewpoint.  If  Gentz  later  turned 
against  equality,  it  would  not  necessarily  indicate  a  depar- 
ture from  this  standpoint ;  he  may,  on  more  careful  consid- 
eration, have  noticed  that  Cicero  refers,  after  all,  less  to 
equality  of  rights  than  to  equal  protection  of  rights  what- 
ever these  might  be.  In  addition  to  this,  Cicero  was,  of 
course,  the  sworn  enemy  of  all  excesses  such  as  the  Revo- 
lution brought  with  it.  It  is  true  that  he  does  not  fre- 
quently speak  of  forms  of  government,  whereas  Gentz,  be- 
tween 1789  and  1795,  considered  constitutional  govern- 
ment the  best;  but  it  is  just  the  relative  silence  on  these 
points  which  made  it  possible  for  Gentz  to  yield  to  other 
influences  without  being  disloyal  to  his  fundamental  prin- 
ciples as  well  as  to  the  inspirer  of  the  same. 

It  can,  of  course,  not  be  denied  that  the  Ciceronian 
influence  on  Gentz  often  coincided  with  that  of  natural  law ; 
likewise  it  must  be  admitted  that  Gentz's  original  ideas 
were,  to  a  certain  extent,  modified  by  his  reading  of  Burke 
and  Mallet  du  Pan,  and  by  the  course  of  the  French 
Revolution  itself. 


II.  THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  THE  REVOLUTION 

1.     BEFORE  THE   STRUGGLE:   1789-1792. 

On  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine  there  existed  already 
in  the  years  1787  and  1788  here  and  there  a  fear  that 
Europe  was  on  the  eve  of  disturbances;  but  when  the 
Revolution  really  broke  out  in  France,  even  those  who  had 
felt  such  premonitions  were  surprised.  The  sensation 
which  the  rapid  succession  of  events  since  1789  aroused 
was  extraordinary  and  persisted  often  for  a  considerable 
time  after  the  opening  scenes  of  the  great  drama.1  Even 
in  1793,  Archenholz  writes  in  his  Minerva:  "The  French 
Revolution  crowds  out  everything  else  by  reason  of  its  in- 
tense interest;  the  best  poetry  remains  unread."2  In  1794, 
Gentz  remarks  likewise:  "The  French  Revolution  is  one 
of  those  occurences  which  belong  to  all  mankind;  it  is  an 
occurence  of  such  magnitude  that  it  is  scarcely  permissible 
in  its  presence  to  be  occupied  with  any  lesser  interest."3 

*For  a  better  understanding  of  the  following,  it  is  well  at  this  point 
to  recall  the  chief  events  of  the  French  Revolution.  They  are  as  fol- 
lows: May  5th,  1789,  assembling  of  the  Etats-Generaux  at  Versailles; 
June  1 7th,  establishment  of  the  third  estate  as  the  National  Assembly; 
July  I4th,  storming  of  the  Bastille ;  August  27th,  declaration  of  the  rights 
of  man ;  October  5th  to  6th,  procession  of  the  mob  to  Versailles,  removal 
of  the  royal  family  and  of  the  National  Assembly  to  Paris;  June  2oth, 
1791,  flight  of  the  king  to  Varennes  and  his  return  to  Paris ;  October, 
1791  to  September,  1792,  Legislative  Assembly;  April  2Oth,  1792,  declara- 
tion of  war  against  Austria,  and  February  ist,  1792,  against  Holland, 
England  and  Spain;  May,  1792,  actual  beginning  of  the  revolutionary 
wars ;  August  loth,  storming  of  the  Tuileries ;  August  I3th,  suspension  and 
imprisonment  of  the  king,  Jacobins  in  power;  September  2nd  to  7th, 
massacre  of  royalists  and  constitutionalistic  prisoners  at  Paris  and  in 
other  large  cities;  September,  1792,  to  October,  1795,  National  Conven- 
tion; September  2ist,  1792,  abolition  of  the  monarchy;  January  2ist,  1792, 
execution  of  the  king;  March,  1793,  to  July,  1794,  Reign  of  Terror;  Octo- 
ber, 1795,  to  November,  1799,  government  of  the  Directory;  October  9th 
(i8th  Brumaire),  1799,  Coup  d'Etat  by  Napoleon  Bonaparte. 

"August  Number,  109. 

'Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xvi. 

53 


54  FBIEDRICH  GEIs7TZ  [540 

The  enthusiasm  for  the  Revolution  in  Germany  was 
at  first  wide-spread;  it  was,  however,  not  equally  intense 
everywhere,  and  even  where  it  did  prevail,  it  was  subject 
to  considerable  variations.4  The  West  and  the  South  seem 
to  have  been  most  affected,  that  is  to  say,  the  territory 
which  lay  nearest  to  France  and  which  is  even  today,  the 
stronghold  of  German  democracy.  By  the  end  of  1789  and 
the  spring  of  1790  in  this  part  of  Germany — especially  in 
the  Palatinate,  in  Hesse  and  in  the  ecclesiastical  territor- 
ies on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  in  the  Black  Forest  and 
in  many  of  the  imperial  cities — even  numerous  petty  re- 
volts broke  out,  which  were,  however,  subdued  without 
much  effort,  either  by  compromise  or  by  force.  Toward 
the  spring  of  1791,  the  first  enthusiasm  had  subsided,  and 
then  unheard  of  events  followed  one  another  with  dreadful 
rapidity.  The  result  of  this  was  that  the  number  of  those 
sympathizing  with  the  Revolution  quickly  decreased 
during  1792-1795.  Already  the  20th  of  June,  1791,  had 
caused  many  to  waver;  but  the  13th  of  August,  the  2nd  to 
7th  and  the  21st  of  September,  1792,  the  21st  of  January, 
1793,  and  finally  the  whole  Reign  of  Terror  made  an  ex- 
tremely unfavorable  impression.  After  the  fall  of  Robes- 
pierre, the  sympathy  for  the  Revolution  once  more  in- 
creased and  was  further  strengthened  by  the  victories  of 
Bonaparte  in  Italy. 

The  intellectual  classes  of  Germany  seem  to  have  been 
more  persistently  committed  to  the  couse  of  the  Revolution 
than  any  other  class;  they  saw  in  it  a  movement  which 
was  essential  to  the  progress  of  humanity  and  were  in- 
clined to  ignore  its  excesses  or  to  excuse  them  on  the 
ground  of  circumstances.  Gentz  complains  of  this  as  late 
as  1794,  in  the  midst  of  the  Reign  of  Terror.5  The  nobility 
was,  in  the  main,  opposed  to  the  Revolution,  which  as  re- 
gards the  country  districts  of  Prussia,  had  great  signifi- 
cance. The  clergy  and  the  government  became,  of  course, 
very  soon  decidedly  hostile  to  all  revolutionary  tendencies. 

*Cf .  for  the  following :  Wenck,  Deutschland  vor  hundert  Jahren. 
Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  v. 


541]  GERMANY  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  55 

The  attitude  of  the  peasants  varied  considerably.  In  the 
North  they  remained  in  general  quiet,  owing  to  their  na- 
tural conservatism,  to  the  influence  of  the  local  powers, 
the  landed  nobility  and  the  clergy,  to  their  old  Prussian 
instinct  for  discipline  and  their  geographical  remoteness 
from  France.  In  the  West  and  South,  however,  there  was 
at  first  considerable  restlessness,  as  has  been  previously 
remarked,  especially  on  account  of  statute  labor  and  the 
damage  done  by  game.  The  peasantry  of  Swabia  remained 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  down  to  1796,  and 
not  until  the  French  themselves  appeared  in  the  country, 
did  this  feeling  change.6  The  invasion  of  the  French 
armies  into  German  territories  cooled  the  enthusiasm  for 
the  Revolution  also  in  other  districts;  the  plundering  of 
the  imperial  city  of  Frankfort  a.  M.  by  Custine  made,  for 
example,  a  deep  impression  on  almost  all  Germany,  par- 
ticularly of  course,  on  its  rich  commercial  centers.  As  an 
illustration  of  the  opinions  then  prevailing  in  Germany, 
we  may  cite  two  contemporary  judgments,  one  from  the 
South  and  one  from  the  North.  In  1798  the  Swabian  Z. 
L.  Huber  writes,  that  there  existed  in  his  country,  as  else- 
where in  Germany,  three  parties:  those  who  were  hostile 
to  the  Revolution,  those  who  sympathized  with  it,  and 
finally  a  middle  party.  The  enemies,  he  explained,  would 
like  to  see  the  Revolution  with  all  its  principles  and  effects 
nowhere  else  than  in  limbo,  and  in  this  party  he  includes 
first  of  all  the  rulers,  the  governments,  and  the  nobles; 
the  sympathizers,  on  the  other  hand,  delighted  in  the  Rev- 
olution and  many  of  its  methods,  while  the  middle  party 
agreed  with  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  but  regretted 
its  ways.7  According  to  the  Hanoverian  E.  Brandes, 
there  prevailed  among  the  nobles  and  among  many  of  the 
officials  not  only  disgust  with,  but  even  a  considerable  fear 
of,  the  Revolution;  on  the  other  hand,  the  movement  met 
with  sympathy  from  a  minority  of  the  officials  and  from 

'Lang,  Fon  und  aus  Schwaben,  III,  88. 
Vfc.U,  III,  67. 


56  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [542 

most  of  the  political  theorists.8  As  to  the  particular  con- 
ditions of  Prussia,  a  modern  historian  assumes  that  there 
the  nobility  and  army  were  more  or  less  against  the  Revo- 
lution and  the  middle  classes  more  or  less  for  it,  while 
some  of  the  high  officials  and  not  a  few  of  the  lower  ones 
felt  at  least  convinced  that  reforms  were  necessary.9 

The  centres  of  this  struggle  between  the  conflicting 
views  for  and  against  the  Revolution  were  Hamburg,  Ber- 
lin and  Gottingen  in  the  North,  Tubingen  in  the  South, 
and  Jena  in  middle  Germany.  At  Gottingen,  Brandes, 
Schlozer,  and  Girtanner  had  been  writing  against  the 
Revolution  since  1791,  while  at  Tubingen  the  tireless  Pos- 
selt  was  working  for  it  since  about  1795.  In  1793,  there 
arose  a  new  opponent  to  the  Revolution :  the  young  Fred- 
erick Gentz. 

If  we  wish  to  understand  Gentz's  position  towards 
the  Revolution  from  the  beginning,  we  must  attempt  to 
put  ourselves  into  his  state  of  mind.  He  was,  as  has  been 
shown  above,  strongly  interested  in  the  progress  of  human 
culture,  in  justice,  freedom,  and  equality — in  the  last, 
it  is  true,  in  a  rather  vague  sense — and  believed,  at  any 
rate  later  on,  that  the  conditions  of  pre-r evolutionary 
France  were  really  bad  and  needed  reforming.10  He 
heard  the  mutterings  of  the  French  people,  but  also  saw, 
or  thought  he  saw,  that  the  king  and  the  government  were 
not  only  ready  for  such  reforms  but  had  even  taken  steps 
toward  their  realization.11  Of  the  character  of  the  French 
nation  itself  he  had,  furthermore,  a  rather  high  opinion  to 
which  he  gives  expression  even  in  the  midst  of  the  struggle. 
What  else,  then,  could  he  expect,  but  that  the  work  of  re- 
form would  now  be  completed?  It  might  be  completed 
even  though  with  disturbances,  yet  without  the  shedding  of 
blood  or  the  overthrow  of  law ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
Gentz  expected  it  to  be  accomplished  along  the  lines  reconi- 

*Wenck,  Deutschland  vor  hundert  Jahren,  II,  4. 

*Wittichen,  Forschungen  zur  brand,  und  preuss.  Geschichte,  XIX,  6  ff_ 

10Cf.  p.  67. 

"Cf.  p.  67  f. 


543J         EARLY   SYMPATHIES  WITH   THE  REVOLUTION  57 

mended  by  Cicero  in  the  passage  which  he  cited  in  1793. 12 
That  he  really  did  entertain  these  hopes  can,  of  course,  not 
be  proved  absolutely.13  It  is  true,  had  Gentz  possessed 
more  experience,  he  could  have  seen  even  then  that  it  is 
wholly  impossible  to  forecast  the  future  in  any  way  so  long 
as  events  depend  upon  the  multitude  and  upon  its  psy- 
chology. 

In  view  of  this  we  must,  therefore,  find  it  but  natural 
that  Gentz  at  first  should  have  welcomed  the  Revolution. 
As  Henrietta  Herz  relates,14  he  was  enthusiastic  about  the 
cause  of  freedom  even  in  1787,  and  we  can  follow  the 
course  of  his  sympathy  in  his  letters  to  Garve  down  to 
April  19,  1791.15  He  states  that  he  himself  would  consider 
the  failure  of  this  movement  as  one  of  the  greatest 
misfortunes  that  ever  befell  the  human  race;  he  defines 
the  Revolution  as  the  "first  practical  triumph  of  philosophy  ^ 
the  first  example  of  a  form  of  government  which  is  founded 
on  principles  and  upon  a  consistent,  logical  system."  He 
terms  it  "an  attempt  to  better  humanity  on  a  large  scale," 
or  "the  greatest  work  which  history  can  show,"  and  sin- 
cerely mourns  the  death  of  Mirabeau.  But  his  utterances 
are  soon  tinged  with  a  pessimistic  undertone,  and  in  April, 
1791,  he  begins  to  fear  that  the  Revolution  may  eventually 
fail.16 

We  have  no  direct  information  about  Gentz's  attitude 
toward  the  Revolution  during  the  period  between  the 
middle  of  April,  1791,  and  the  end  of  1792,  as  his  letters 
to  Garve  from  this  time  are  not  preserved  and  other  mater- 
ial is  not  available.  We  know,  however,  this  much  that  he 
followed  the  events  in  France  with  a  very  watchful  eye. 
As  early  as  1790  he  is  reading  Mallet  du  Pan's  Mcrcure  de 
France,  Mirabeau's  Courier  de  Provence  and  the  reports 

BWeick,  I,  258  f.,  note. 
"Ibid.,  II,  45,  note. 
"Guglia,  Friedrich  von  Gents,  98. 

>DThere  are  only  a  few  of  them :  Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  178  ff., 
203   ff. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  205. 


58  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [544 

of  the  sessions  of  the  National  Assembly.17  He  praises 
the  Mercure  with  reference  to  its  style,  but  can  not  yet 
agree  with  its  tendencies;  three  years  later,  however,  he 
calls  the  paper  the  best  French  publication  since  the  death 
of  Voltaire.18  The  reports  received  his  high  praise  as  first 
class  sources  for  the  study  of  the  Kevolution.19  He  mentions 
also  other  works  and  newspapers :  Burke's  Reflections,  the 
Moniteur  and  the  Journal  de  Paris,  then  in  a  general  way, 
Brandes  and  Girtanner;  of  the  last  two  he  has  no  favor- 
able impression,  and  in  Burke  he  is  at  the  time  being 
pleased  only  with  the  form  of  presentation.20  His  review 
of  the  French  political  literature  from  August  1788  to 
June  1789  in  the  Historisches  Journal  of  1799  shows,  how- 
ever, that  in  his  study  of  the  Kevolution  he  must  have  con- 
sulted many  other  publications  besides  those  mentioned 
above;  in  1796  he  asks  the  library  at  Weimar  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  using  its  literature  on  the  Revolution,  and  in  1798 
the  number  of  newspapers  which  he  is  reading  and  excerpt- 
ing regularly  has  grown  to  many  German,  five  French,  and 
three  English  ones.21  The  events  in  France  had  apparently 
got  a  permanent  hold  upon  his  mind,  as  he  himself  acknowl- 
edges in  1790  and  again  in  1798.22 

The  sympathetic  attitude  of  Gentz  toward  the  Revolu- 
tion did,  however,  not  last  very  long,  for  as  early  as  the 
beginning  of  1793,  he  appeared  as  its  foe,  with  the  trans- 
lation of  Burke's  Reflections,  and  five  political  treatises 
from  his  own  pen.23  The  pro-revolutionary  utterances 
which  have  been  preserved  of  him  extend,  as  we  know,  not 
beyond  the  middle  of  April,  1791 ;  and  since  we  may  assume, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  he  began  his  work  on  Burke  and 

"Ibid.,  I,  178  ff. 

"Ibid.,  ii,  40. 

translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xxvii. 

MBriefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  203  ff. 

nH.  ].,  1799,  II,  176  ff.  Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  206  f.,  220  f., 
223,  note,  224. 

a 'Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  I,  180,  207. 

"The  two  volumes  of  this  work  actually  appeared  at  the  close  of  1792, 
but  bore  the  date  1793. 


545]  CHANGE  OF  ATTITUDE  59 

the  five  essays,  at  latest  in  the  fall  of  1792,  the  change  in 
his  attitude  toward  the  Revolution  must  have  taken  place 
in  the  period  determined  by  these  two  limits.  Exactly 
when  and  why  it  took  place  is  not  easy  to  say,  nor  is  it  im- 
portant. The  reading  of  Burke  doubtless  had  some  influ- 
ence. We  have,  however,  no  means  of  determining  the 
exact  extent  of  this  influence  as  Burke's  theories  in  many 
leading  points — in  their  marked  tendency  toward  political 
conservatism,  in  their  emphasis  on  justice  in  general  and 
property  rights  in  particular,  in  their  conception  of  equal- 
ity, in  their  indifference  to  all  theories  and  exaltation  of 
wisdom  and  experience — correspond  exactly  with  those 
which  Gentz  could  already  have  become  acquainted  with 
in  Cicero  or  Garve.  It  is,  however,  probable  that  Gentz 
was  not  inconsiderably  influenced  by  Burke  in  his  estimate 
of  the  events  themselves  in  France,  and  in  his  determina- 
tion to  join  the  ranks  of  the  fighters.  The  same  might  be 
said  about  a  possible  influence  of  Mallet  du  Pan.  Of  much 
greater  importance  in  this  regard  was  the  course  of  the 
Revolution  itself.  Gentz  soon  saw  more  and  more 
clearly  that  the  movement  not  only  meant  no  real- 
ization of  his  ideals,  but  even  an  increasing  deterior- 
ation of  the  existing  conditions;  he  began  to  doubt  the 
value  of  liberty  and  of  equality  in  the  sense  of  their 
revolutionary  interpretation,  and  the  antipathy  which 
thus  had  gradually  been  gathering  came  finally  with  rela- 
tive suddenness  to  a  climax.  When  this  stage  was  reached 
can  not  be  said  definitely.  All  indications,  however, 
point  to  the  events  of  the  10th  to  13th  of  August,  1792,  as 
those  which  brought  about  the  climax;  the  bloody 
scenes  of  the  2nd  to  7th  of  September,  and  the  remainder 
of  that  "ever  horrible  year",  1792,  only  made  Gentz's  atti- 
tude a  permanent  one.24  "The  last  and  most  terrible  period 
of  the  French  Revolution",  he  says  in  1794,  .  .  .  "be- 
gan with  the  horrors  of  the  10th  of  August."  This  opinion 
was  quite  correct  in  so  far  as  those  days  did  mark  the 

"Weick,  II,  301,  159.    Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  45,  note,  74,  note, 
97,  note,  142,  note. 


60  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [546 

beginning  of  what  Gentz  calls  "the  systematic  overthrow 
of  all  social  conditions".25  It  was  also  more  or  less  the 
opinion  of  the  many  German  observers  of  the  events  beyond 
the  Ehine  who  after  having  sympathized  with  the  Revolu- 
tion finally  turned  against  it.  There  were,  according  to 
Gentz's  own  testimony,  in  Germany  people  professing 
democracy  up  to  the  5th  of  October,  1789,  to  the  opening 
of  the  Legislative  Assembly,  to  the  10th  of  August,  1792,  to 
the  execution  of  the  King  and  so  on  ;26  for  the  majority  of 
the  German  democrats,  however,  this  10th  of  August 
marked  the  turning  point  in  their  attitude  toward  the 
Revolution.27. 

2.     1793—1801. 

Gentz  was  now  an  enemy  of  the  Revolution  and  re- 
mained so  during  the  next  ten  years  of  his  life.  As  his 
nature  would  not  permit  him  to  be  idle  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, he  girded  his  loins  and  went  forth  to  battle. 

How  far  he  fought  the  Revolution  through  the  medium 
of  the  spoken  word  is  hard  to  say ;  our  sources  are  for  the 
most  part  silent  about  this.  Opportunity  for  such  activity 
certainly  was  not  wanting  to  him.  During  the  whole  period 
of  this  struggle,  he  was  living  at  Berlin  as  an  official  of  the 
Prussian  civil  service;  his  position  was  by  no  means  an 
important  one,  but  he  possessed  from  the  beginning  con- 
nections and  these  together  with  his  own  resourcefulness 
won  him  in  time  a  place  in  the  higher  social  life  of  Berlin. 
Up  to  1797,  we  find  in  his  letters  especial  references  to  an 
intercourse  with  families  of  the  middle  class  such  as  the 
Ancillon,  Spalding,  Engel,  Gilly,  Hainchelin,  Merian, 
Herz  and  others ;  names  of  the  nobility  are,  however,  also 
mentioned,  as  for  instance  that  of  W.  von  Humboldt.  Lit- 
tle by  little  Gentz's  social  environment  becomes  higher,  and 
between  1800  and  1802,  he  moves  in  the  upper  circles  of 
society;  he  is  now  acquainted  with  Prince  Louis  Ferdi- 

Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  75,  note. 

"Ibid.,  pref.,  xxi. 

"Lang,  Von  und  aus  Schwaben,  III,  69. 


547]  EARLY  ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY  ACTIVITY  61 

maud  of  Prussia,  with  the  duke  of  Braunschweig-Ols,  the 
ambassadors  of  various  foreign  powers,  such  as  Lord 
Carisford  of  England,  Prince  Reuss  and  Count  Stadion 
of  Austria,  Count  Panin  of  Russia  and  Brinckmann  of 
Sweden,  with  Lucchesini,  the  later  Prussian  representative 
at  Paris,  and  with  Haugwitz.28  This  undeniable  suc- 
cess he  owed  to  a  combination  of  fortunate  circumstances. 
His  father  was,  after  1779,  director  general  of  the  royal 
mint,  and  one  of  his  uncles,  an  Ancillon,  counsellor  of  the 
consistory  in  Berlin.  Moreover,  he  had  patrons  and  friends 
who  boomed  him  socially,  such  as  Captain  von  Schack, 
Brinckmann,  the  Swedish  envoy,  and  the  Marquise  of 
Lucchesini.29  Finally,  we  must  here  take  into  account 
his  own  social  talents,  his  growing  reputation  and  his 
lavish  expenditure  of  the  money  extracted  from  the  coffers 
of  the  British  foreign  Office  and  the  treasuries  of  helpful 
people  in  general.  But,  whatever  Gentz,  in  these  circles, 
may  have  done  against  the  Revolution,  the  centre  of  his 
anti-revolutionary  activities  lay  certainly  elsewhere :  in  his 
anti-revolutionary  publications.  The  first  of  these,  as  noted 
above,  were  his  translation  of  Burke's  Reflections  and  the 
five  essays  Vbel  politische  Freiheit;  Vber  die  Moralitdt  in 
den  Staats  revolutionen ;  Vber  die  Deklaration  der  Rechte; 
Versuch  einer  Widerlegung  der  Apologie  des  Herra  Mak- 
intosh;  and  Vber  die  Nationalerzichung  in  Frankreich.  In 
1794  his  translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan's  work  on  the 
French  Revolution  appeared;  likewise,  in  1795,  that 
of  a  part  of  Mounier's  "The  Causes  which  have 
hindered  France  from  attaining  Freedom,"  and  in  1797  a 
translation  and  continuation  of  d'lvernois'  "History  of 
the  Financial  Administration  of  the  French  Republic  dur- 
ing the  year  1796."  Independent  works  were:  Vber  die 
Grundprincipi-en  der  jctzigen  franzosichen  Verfassung, 
nach  Robespierre's  nnd  St.  Just's  Darstellung  derselben 

"Schlesier,  V,  24  ff. 

"According  to  Gentz  himself,  it  was  she  who  introduced  him  into 
upper  Berlin  society  (Festschrift  zu  Gustav  Schmollers  70.  Geburtstag, 
249)  ;  but  perhaps  he  here  simply  desires  to  flatter. 


62  FRIEDRICH   GENTZ  [548 

from  1794,  Uber  den  Ursprung  und  Charakter  des  Krieges 
gegen  die  franzosische  Revolution,  and  Von  dem  politi- 
schen  Zustande  von  Eumopa  vor  und  nach  der  franzosischen 
Revolution,  the  last  two  both  from  1801.  Finally,  there 
are  to  be  mentioned  two  periodicals  which  were  mostly 
written  by  Gentz  himself,  the  Neue  teutsche  Monats- 
schrift  and  the  Historisches  Journal.  The  Historisches 
Journal,  the  more  important  one,  was  purely  political  and 
financial  in  content  and  appeared  from  1799  to  1800.  The 
work  on  the  history  of  the  French  Kevolution,  upon  which 
Gentz  worked  during  the  nineties,  has  never  been  printed ; 
it  exists,  however,  as  a  manuscript  ready  for  print,  and 
consists  of  five  volumes.30  Of  all  publications,  the  series 
of  articles  in  the  Historisches  Journal  of  1799,  bearing  the 
titles  Uber  den  Gang  der  offentlichen  Meinung  in  Europa 
in  Riicksicht  auf  die  franzosische  Revolution,  and  Be- 
trachtungen  uber  die  Entstchung  der  franzosischen  Rev- 
olution, give  the  clearest  insight  into  Gentz's  views  about 
the  causes  and  the  first  period  of  the  Eevolution. 

In  these  nineties  falls  also  the  beginning  of  Gentz's 
connections  with  foreign  governments  and  personages, 
which  from  then  on  played  an  ever  increasing  role  in  his 
life.  We  know  already  that  he  gradually  became  acquainted 
with  various  foreign  representatives  accredited  to  the  court 
of  Berlin.  His  relations  with  Austria  began  through  his 
sending  the  translation  of  Burke  to  Emperor  Francis; 
later  he  received  the  permission  to  sell  copies  of  his  His- 
torisches Journal  in  the  Austrian  duchies.31  He  must  also 
have  come  into  touch  with  leading  men  in  Kussia,  for  in 
May  1800  his  diaries  speak  of  his  receiving  a  present  from 
the  Czar.32 

The  first  establishment  of  relations  with  England  fol- 
lowed in  1795;  Gentz  published  in  his  Neue  Teutsche 
Monatsschrift  a  translation  of  a  portion  of  d'lvernois' 
study  on  republican  finance  which  aroused  Pitt's  interest 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.   Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  245,  246,  note  i. 
"Guglia,  Friedrich  von  Gents,  137. 
"Tagebucher  I,  i. 


549]  EARLY  ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY  ACTIVITY  63 

and  caused  him  to  urge  the  author  to  continue  his  work.33 
1799  Gentz  presented  to  the  English  secretary  of  state, 
Lord  Grenville,  an  article  which  had  appeared  in  the  His- 
torisches  Journal  and  dealt  with  Pitt's  financial  policy; 
he  added  the  request  that  the  article  be  laid  before  the 
King.  Grenville  replied  with  a  letter  and  a  check.34  No- 
vember, 1800,  Gentz  sent  two  memorials  to  London.  In 
the  first  he  pictures  the  condition  of  popular  opinion  on 
the  Continent  toward  England ;  in  the  second  he  offers  his 
services  to  the  English  government  as  journalistic  repre- 
sentative, and  this  offer  seems  to  have  been  accepted.35  In 
October  1802,  Gentz  went  himself  to  England,  where  he 
remained  some  three  months.  His  personal  success  was 
great;36  but  this  was  only  natural,  for  he  was  peculiarly 
fitted  for  the  life  of  the  then  existing  English  society:  he 
had  the  instincts  of  the  grand-seigneur,  was  a  brilliant 
conversationalist,  and  could  endure  any  amount  of  the 
gay  life.  He  himself  was  in  a  perfect  rapture,  for  he  felt, 
for  the  first  time,  the  delicious  inspiration  of  satisfied  am- 
bition; for  a  brief  moment  he  mingled  with  the  mighty 
as  an  equal.  At  the  same  time  he  reached  an  agreement 
with  the  British  government;  it  has  never  become  known 
what  instructions  he  received,  but  in  general  he  was  ex- 
pected to  act  as  an  English  agent  on  the  continent.37  If 
this  step  later  brought  him  under  suspicion,  it  must  be 
said  that  he  by  no  means  intended  bartering  his  convic- 
tions; this  he  never  did,  not  even  under  the  most  trying 
pressure.  English  policy  was,  after  all,  in  its  main  fea- 
tures, only  the  one  advocated  by  himself,  for  it  aimed  at 
France,  and  he  really  believed  that  in  serving  England 
he  was  serving  Europe.  That  he  accepted  remuneration 
for  his  services  was  not  only  quite  proper  but  even  neces- 
sary; for  without  sufficient  funds  he  could  never  hope  to 

"Schmidt- Weissenfels,  Friedrich  Gents,  I,  84. 
"Preuss.  Jahrb.,  CX,  466. 
"Ibid.,  CX,  467. 
"Schlesier,  V,  28. 
"Preuss.  Jahrb.,  CX,  468. 


64  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [550 

gain  entrance  into  those  circles  by  which  the  course  of 
foreign  policies  was  shaped. 

A  number  of  causes  contributed  to  make  of  Gentz  thus, 
by  degrees,  a  rather  many-sided  personality.  Gentz  had,  as 
we  know,  an  inborn  and  increasing  interest  in  politics, 
and  that  he  could,  as  a  Prussian  subaltern,  not  practically 
indulge;  he  seized,  therefore,  the  only  way  which  offered 
an  outlet  for  his  feelings:  the  pen.  Furthermore,  he  was 
ambitious  and  of  very  luxurious  inclinations;  how  was  he 
to  satify  these  tendencies  in  the  service  of  the  Prussian 
state  where,  as  he  explains  to  Adam  Mtiller,  he  could  only 
hope  to  reach  the  position  of  privy  counsellor  of  finances, 
carrying  a  salary  of  two  thousand  thaler?38  And  was  writ- 
ing not  a  positive  pleasure  to  him  which  he  could  never  long 
forego?  If  he  industriously  wove  at  the  net  in  which  his 
fortune  was  to  become  entangled,  he  did  in  this  certainly 
not  think  of  himself  alone,  nor  even  principally:  all 
the  various  lines  of  his  activity  were,  after  all, 
converging  toward  the  one  aim  of  opposing  the  Revo- 
lution, and  this  opposition  he  regarded  as  a  sacred  duty 
which  had  to  be  fulfilled  whatever  one's  own  inclinations 
might  be.39  Not  that  he  expected  certain  results  of  his 
efforts,  for  these,  he  thought,  were,  in  the  flood  of  pro- 
revolutionary  writings,  somewhat  doubtful  and  uncer- 
tain.40 But  he  wished  to  do  his  part  to  further  the  good 
cause;  it  might,  perhaps,  be  of  some  use  and  bear  unex- 
pected fruit. 

In  how  far  Gentz  here  allowed  himself  to  be  influ- 
enced by  Burke  it  is  hard  to  say,  but  the  latter's  example 
can  hardly  have  been  entirely  without  effect.  Gentz  him- 
self seems  to  point  to  the  existence  of  such  an  influence, 
for  in  the  introduction  to  his  translation  of  Burke  we  find 
the  passage:  "In  most  of  the  important  proceedings  of 
his  time,  Burke  was  an  opponent  of  the  ministry,  because 

the  influence  of  the  court  extended  beyond  the  proper  point 

i 

*Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  369. 

"Weick,  I,  2,  14,  18.    Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xiv  ff.  xix. 

"Weick,  I,  7-14. 


551]  EARLY  ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY  ACTIVITY  65 

of  equilibrium,  because  it  threatened  to  annihilate  or  to 
weaken  the  power  of  the  representatives  of  the  people. 
Burke  took  up  the  cause  of  the  Americans  with  a  warmth 
which  he  may  well  thank  for  much  of  his  great  name;  be- 
cause they  were,  although  they  were  Britons,  denied  the 
British  constitution,  because  he  found  according  to  the 
maxims  of  true  British  polity  that  their  demands  were 
just;  because  he  divined  the  strength  of  their  opposition 
and  the  probable  outcome  of  the  unfortunate  war  which 
was  forced  upon  them,  with  more  accuracy  than  a  blinded 
ministry  did."41  That  which  Gentz  praises  in  Burke  applied 
equally  well  to  himself:  one  has  only  to  recall  his  stern 
standpoint  of  justice,  his  initial  sympathy  with  constitu- 
tions, and  his  later  opposition  to  Cobenzl,  against  whom  he 
also  hurls  the  word  "blinded;"  he  fights,  it  is  true,  not 
against  but  for  the  preponderance  of  court  influence.  It 
is,  therefore,  quite  possible  that  Gentz  took  up  the  fight 
against  the  Revolution — which  from  his  point  of  view  was 
preeminently  a  struggle  for  the  right — inspired,  among 
others,  by  Burke,  especially  since  he  had  learned  from  the 
hitter's  career,  what  a  name  could  be  won  by  championing 
the  right. 

Not  much  more  certain  is  the  influence  which  Mallet 
du  Pan  may  have  had  on  Gentz.  Gentz  and  Mallet  stood, 
since  1793,  closely  enough  together  in  their  political  views. 
Both  rejected  the  principle  of  popular  sovereignty  and 
fought  for  a  stronger  government ;  on  the  other  hand,  they 
were  indifferent  as  to  the  particular  form  of  the  latter. 
Both  corresponded  with  ministers  and  kings,  both  pub- 
lished periodicals  and  had  close  relations  with  England. 
These  parallels  could  even  be  followed  into  the  personal 
characters  of  the  two  men,  for  each  was  possessed  of  a 
marked  preference  for  order  and  moderation  in  every 
thing,  of  a  strong  feeling  of  independence  and  a  pronounced 
antipathy  against  all  that  was  loud  and  violent.  If  one 
adds  to  this  that  Gentz  repeatedly  mentions  Mallet  in  his 

"Ibid.,  I,  22. 


66  FBIEDKICH  GEXTZ  [552 

letters,42  that  he  translated  or  reviewed  certain  of  his 
works,43  that  his  Historisches  Journal,  according  to  his 
own  testimony,  was  suggested  and  inspired  by  Mallet's 
Mercure  Brittanmquef*  finally  that  in  1799  he  correspond- 
ed with  the  then  exiled  pulicist,45  the  existence  of  an  in- 
fluence upon  Gentz  may  seem  to  be  rather  probable.  The 
exact  extent  of  this  influence,  it  is  true,  cannot  be  deter- 
mined with  certainty;  only  in  the  following  point  do  we 
find  ourselves,  perhaps,  upon  firm  ground.  Mallet  was 
from  about  1793  on,  for  a  number  of  years,  the  confidential 
adviser  of  various  governments  at  war  with  the  Eevolution 
and  sent,  up  to  1798,  political  reports  to  the  courts  of 
Vienna  and  Berlin;  in  1800  he  died.  In  this  same  year 
1800,  Gentz  definitely  offered  the  English  government  his 
services  as  publicist,  and  reported  about  the  political  situ- 
ation on  the  Continent.  It  is,  therefore,  not  altogether 
improbable  that  the  latter  cherished  the  hope  that  the  man- 
tle of  the  dead  Mallet  might  fall  upon  him. 

How,  we  may  ask,  does  Gentz  picture  the  Revolution 
to  himself  and  what  has  he  against  it? 

If  we  begin  with  the  origin  of  the  Revolution,  we  en- 
counter first  his  distinction  between  its  remote  and  its  im- 
mediate causes;  the  former,  Gentz  terms  the  "conditions 
of  possibility,"  the  latter,  "the  conditions  of  reality."46 
The  distinction  is  historically  well-founded,  and  forms  the 
basis  of  Gentz's  general  attitude  toward  the  Revolution. 
He  is  convinced  that  France  stood  in  absolute  need  of  re- 
forms, but  that  on  the  other  hand,  the  Revolution,  as  it 
actually  took  place,  could  and  should  have  been  avoided.47 
The  proper  way  to  solve  the  difficulties  as  it  then  seemed 
to  him  was,  as  he  once  expresses  it  afterwards,  by  means 
of  a  "gentle  revolution."48 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,   179  f.,  255. 

**//.  /.,  1799  and  1800. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  -v.  Gents,  I,  327. 

"Ibid.,  326  ff. 

-H.  J.,  1799,  I,  38,  196. 

"Ibid.,  I,  198  ff.,  229  ff. 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  33,  note. 


553]  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  67 

Gentz  describes  the  conditions  of  pre-revolutionary 
France  with  the  instinct  of  the  objective  historian  who  is 
concerned  above  all  with  the  establishment  of  the  truth. 
On  civilized  Europe  as  a  whole,  he  passes  the  judgment 
that  before  the  Revolution  it  had  reached  an  astonishing 
degree  of  perfection  and  was  justified  in  still  hoping  for 
far  more.49  As  its  centre  he  considers  France,50  which, 
therefore,  necessarily  had  its  share  in  this  high  attainment 
of  European  civilization.  That  everything  there  was  not 
what  it  should  have  been,  he  does  not  fail  to  recognize.  He 
points  out  especially  the  bad  system  of  taxation  of  the 
country;  aside  from  this  he  mentions  the  subordination  of 
agriculture  to  the  interests  of  industry  and  the  already 
decidedly  appreciable  overpupulation,  as  it  seemed  to  him.51 
To  the  lettres  de  cachet  he  attaches,  however,  but  small 
importance.52  His  judgment  of  Louis  XVI  is  all  in  all  a 
favorable  one;  he  cannot,  however,  forbear  to  blame  the 
weakness  of  the  king,  who  did  not  rise  to  meet  the  situa- 
tion.53 He  points  out  with  special  emphasis  that  monarch 
and  government  were  sincerely  ready  for  vital  reforms; 
Turgot,  he  explains,  proposed  reforms  "such  as  had  never 
been  conceived  upon  a  throne."54 

When,  in  spite  of  all,  the  Revolution  came,  the  blame 
lay,  according  to  Gentz,  on  what  he  terms  the  "conditions 
of  its  reality."  He  assumes  that  grave  mistakes  were  made 
on  all  sides,  by  the  king,  by  the  government,  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  and  finally  by  the  people  them- 
selves. The  greatest  blame  he  lays,  to  be  sure,  to  the  score 
of  the  people  and  their  representatives.  The  government 
fell  short  in  that  it  neglected  to  suppress  the  general  spirit 
of  discontent,  and  to  direct  it  by  wise  counsels  into  proper 
channels,55  but  above  all,  in  that  it  showed  lack 

«•//.  /.,  1-99,  I,  18. 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xvii. 

*H.  /.,  1799,  I,  208  ff. 

"Ibid.,  I,  215  f. 

"Ibid.,  I,  272  ff. 

"Ibid.,  I,  229,  235  ff.,  293,  304  f. 

"Ibid.,  I,  31  ff. 


68  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [554 

of  foresight  and  weakness.5"  When  the  government,  as  was 
the  case,  encountered  perpetual  opposition,  it  was  its  prop- 
er duty  to  break  this  opposition;  but  this  it  never 
attempted,  much  less  accomplished.57  The  calling  in  of  the 
estates  of  the  realm  was  a  good  idea,  for  it  was  necessary, 
financially  and  otherwise;  unfortunately,  however,  the 
government  failed  to  regulate  in  advance  the  form  of  the 
deliberations,  and  thus  made  possible  the  chaos  which  al- 
most immediately  arose.58  If  we  turn  to  the  other  side, 
we  find  Gentz  pointing  particularly  to  the  influence  of  the 
revolutionary  literature,  to  the  attitude  of  the  National 
Assembly,  and  the  activity  of  the  revolutionary  leaders.59 
He  is  inclined  to  attribute  to  the  leaders  a  large  part  of 
the  blame.  But  the  people  too  he  finds  blameworthy. 
"When  the  Kevolution  of  1789  approached,"  he  writes  in 
1799,  "the  amiability  of  this  nation  [the  French]  had  to 
a  large  degree  disappeared  ....  A  deeply  rooted  discon- 
tent, a  restless  longing  for  destructive  novelty  had  taken 
the  place  of  the  old  peaceful  good  nature  ....  The  frame 
of  mind  of  the  entire  nation  had  grown  more  hostile, 
gloomy,  brooding,  and  tragic.  The  Revolution  bore  in 
its  approach,  in  its  outbreak,  and  in  its  whole  course,  the 
stamp  of  this  mood,  [a  mood]  "which  superficial  observers 
considered  a  result  of  that  tremendous  event,  but  which 
held  priority  over  that  event  and  was  rather  one  of  its 
causes."60  It  is  true,  Gentz  does  not  overlook  the  fact 
that  one  of  the  causes  of  the  Revolution  lay,  in  a  certain 
sense,  within  the  revolt  itself,  insofar  as  every  one  of  its 
events  advanced  its  development  just  one  step  farther. 

The  object  of  Gentz's  special  antipathy  were  the  revo- 
lutionary leaders,  for  they,  of  course,  were  the  rebels  par 
excellence.  Sieyes  was  to  him  the  chief  figure  of  the  early 
Revolution  ;61  Marat,  on  the  other  hand,  probably  the  most 

"Ibid.,  I,  298,  321 ;  II,  30,  55  ff.,  245. 

"Ibid.,  I,  301. 

"Ibid.,  II,  15  ff.(  25  ff.,  56  ff. 

"Ibid.,  II,  138  ff.,  172  ff.    Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xxiv. 

mH.  ].,  1709,  II,  160  ff. 

"Ibid.,  II,  297,  306  ff.    Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  66  ff.  note. 


555]  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  69 

horrible  product  of  the  whole  revolutionary  era.02  Gentz's 
judgment  of  Rousseau  was  not  always  exactly  the  same.  We 
know  that  he  was,  at  one  time,  deeply  interested  in  this 
personality  and  had  found  refreshment  in  the  depths  of  its 
sentiment ;  it  was  in  those  early  years  when  his  emotional 
heart  was  still  able  to  give  itself  up  unreservedly  to  friend- 
ship and  to  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  nature.  This  reverence 
for  Rousseau  lingered  down  to  1792;  Rousseau,  Gentz  still 
thinks,  portrays  the  simplicity,  the  purity  and  the  bliss 
of  the  true  man  of  nature,  and  in  that  consists  the  real 
tendency  of  all  his  ideas.63  Quite  different  from  this,  how- 
ever, is  his  judgment  in  1794.  Now  he  regards  Rousseau 
from  a  purely  political  viewpoint,  and  thus  the  man  whom 
he  had  previously  so  highly  respected  has  now  become  an 
object  of  antipathy,  almost  of  the  most  bitter  hatred.  But 
how  could  it  have  been  otherwise?  Rousseau's  name  was  in 
the  mouths  of  all  enemies  of  the  old  system,  he  was  the 
father  of  the  doctrine  of  the  unconditional  popular  sov- 
ereignty and  was  himself  a  man  of  the  people,  of  large 
ideas  and  an  excess  of  feeling,  but,  in  a  general  sense, 
vulgar  as  well.  Small  wonder,  then,  that  Gentz  now 
hated  this  man  and  hurled  at  him  the  charge  that  out  of 
his  school  all  the  French  revolutionists  from  Sieyes  to 
Marat  had  issued,  and  that  to  his  fingers  the  innocently 
shed  blood  of  the  victims  of  the  Revolution  was  sticking.64 
The  distinction  between  momentary  and  permanent 
causes  of  the  Revolution  made  it  hard  for  Gentz  to  find 
a  definite  beginning  for  that  period.  He  considered  the 
great  turning  point  of  events  to  be  the  second  half  of  the 
year  1792;  what  happened  in  those  bloody  autumn  days 
made  him  forever  a  foe  of  the  new  era.  But  where  was  the 
beginning?  It  was  hard  to  name  an  entirely  certain  point 
in  time,  consequently  Gentz  lays  the  emphasis  now  on  one 
and  now  on  another  of  the  eventful  days  of  the  summer  of 
1789 :  on  the  17th  of  June,  the  14th  of  July,  the  time  from 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  92,  note. 

"Weick,  I,  138  ff.,  note. 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  20  ff.,  note. 


70  FEIEDRICH  GENTZ  [556 

July  to  October,  and  on  the  5tk-6tU  of  October.  In  1793 
he  declares  that  the  originator  of  the  system  of  double  rep- 
resentation for  the  third  estate  was  the  real  cause  of  the 
Revolution,  and  names  in  this  connection  Necker;05  since 
Necker  proposed  this  idea  to  the  royal  council  on  the 
17th  of  December,  1788,  the  real  beginning  of  the  Revolu- 
tion would  then  be  this  day.  Somewhat  different  is  the 
dating  which  Gentz  presents  in  the  same  year  in  reviewing 
the  statement  of  the  Scotch  writer  Makintosh.  Here  he 
mentions  especially  the  5th  of  May,  the  17th  of  June — 
according  to  him  it  had  been  the  15th  of  June — and  the 
14th  of  July,  and  assumes  that  the  Revolution  was  per- 
fected through  the  sanction,  by  the  National  Assembly, 
of  the  storming  of  the  Bastille.66  In  1794  he  sees  the  source 
of  all  the  excesses  of  the  Revolution  in  the  activity  of  the 
National  Assembly  from  July  1789  to  the  meeting  of  the 
Convention.67  In  1799  he  returns,  in  a  certain  sense,  to 
the  17th  of  June — no  longer  the  15th — and  declares  that 
this  day  marked  "one  of  the  greatest  and  most  fearful 
epochs  in  the  history  of  mankind."68 

Gentz  never  really  attempted  to  fix  the  date  of  the  end 
of  the  Revolution.  In  1794  he  still  believed  it  to  be  com- 
ing ;69  but  soon  he  drops  such  speculations.  In  1798  he  even 
fears  that  the  Revolution  may  extend  into  eastern 
Europe.70  With  the  Coup  d'fitat  he  again  indulges  in  hope, 
only  soon  after  to  let  it  fall  again  :71  he  could,  after  all,  not 
eternally  close  his  eyes  to  the  fact  that  Bonaparte  was  not 
only  the  conqueror  of  the  Revolution,  but  also  the  heir. 

As  to  the  significance  of  the  Revolution  as  an  historical 
event  of  the  first  magnitude,  Gentz  was  never  for  a  moment 
in  doubt.  As  evidence  of  this  we  may  cite  a  word  to  be 

"Weick,  I,  84,  note. 

"Ibid.,  II,  116-128. 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xxiv  ff. 

"//.  /.,  1799,  II,  308. 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xxxiii  f. 

"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  I,  210. 

"Cf.  p.  86  f. 


557]  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  71 

found  in  the  introduction  to  his  translation  of  Mallet  du 
Pan,  which  throws,  at  the  same  time,  a  highly  character- 
istic light  upon  his  entire  attitude  toward  this  event.72 
He  writes  there:  "The  French  Revolution  is  one  of  the 
facts  which  belong  to  the  whole  human  race.  It  is  an  event 
of  such  magnitude  that  it  is  hardly  permissible  to  be  occu- 
pied with  any  petty  interest  in  its  fearful  presence,  of  such 
magnitude  that  posterity  will  be  curious  to  know  how 
people  of  all  countries  who  lived  at  the  close  of  the  18th 
century  thought,  felt,  reasoned  and  acted  about  it.  Even 
if  it  had  exercised  no  direct  influence  upon  other  nations, 
it  would  still  deserve  the  entire,  lasting  and  eager  attention 
of  the  world  because  it  hit  the  most  notable  of  all  civilized 
countries,  the  true  centre  of  Europe,  from  which  proceeded 
the  entire  external  culture,  and  most  of  the  inner  culture, 
of  our  hemisphere,  because  it  promised  a  constitution — 
the  most  desirable  thing  which  thinking  beings  can  wish 
for — for  a  society  of  25  millions  of  the  most  active,  cul- 
tured, enlightened,  talented,  clever  and  good-natured  peo- 
ple, and  because,  although  from  its  inception  to  the  present 
time  it  has  been  nothing  but  one  great  departure  from  its 
glorious  aim,  it  had  at  least  to  furnish  the  largest  mass  of 
experiences  out  of  which  the  theory  of  statesmanship  has 
ever  been  developed,  corrected,  and  confirmed."73 

Gentz  emphasizes  at  times  how  infinitely  complicated 
the  developments  of  the  events  in  France  had  been.  But 
the  chaos  there  does  not  seem  to  him  to  be  completely  hope- 
less; he  distinguishes  between  the  essential  and  the  neces- 
sary phenomena,  and  sifts  from  the  mass  of  material  that 
which  he  terms  "the  leading  principles"  of  the  Revolu- 
tion.74 Against  these  he  directs  his  chief  attacks. 

What,  then,  are  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
Revolution,  as  seen  by  Gentz? 

In  1793  he  gives  not  yet  any  really  comprehensive 
statement  of  his  views ;  the  list  of  his  gravamina  against  the 

"Of  1794- 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xvi  ff. 
"Ibid.,  pref.  xxiii  f.      H.  /.,  1799,  II,  335  ff- 


Tl'  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [558 

Revolution  is,  however,  long  enough.  He  emphasizes  the 
great  danger  with  which  Europe  is  being  threatened  from 
the  West.76  Furthermore,  he  accuses  the  Revolution  of 
fanatical  intolerance,  of  disregard  for  propert3r,  of  vanity 
and  hypocrisy,  love  of  destruction,  general  lawlessness, 
irreligion  and  a  deeply  rooted  hatred  of  everything  lofty, 
even  of  the  aristocracy  of  spirit.76  The  object  of  his  special 
antipathy  is,  of  course,  the  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people.  In  his  treatises  of  1793,  there  is  scarcely  a 
page  on  which  the  words  "liberty"  and  "equality"  are 
not  made  the  object  of  bitter  criticism.  Gentz  thinks  that 
he  is  laying  his  finger  at  the  very  root  of  all  the  evil,  when 
he  says:  "There  can  be  no  absolutely  incurably  sick  per- 
son, save  he  who  takes  pleasure  in  his  pains.  This  is,  how- 
ever, the  real  condition  of  the  French  people.  Every  suffer- 
ing is  sweet  to  them,  if  they  only  can  dream  of  their  self- 
government.  Their  happiness  is  the  happiness  of  a  mad- 
man who  does  not  feel  the  whip  of  his  jailor  because  he 
considers  himself  the  King  of  Kings.  If  one  goes  to  the 
bottom  of  this  political  dreaming,  then  the  garment  of  a 
few  high-sounding  phrases  disappears;  and  what  remains 
is — the  fanaticism  of  vanity."77 

On  the  declaration  of  human  rights,  Gentz  expresses 
himself  in  1793,  and  then  again  in  1800,  both  times  in  the 
same  tone.78  His  judgment  is  exceptionally  unfavorable. 
The  very  idea  of  such  a  declaration  displeases  him  exceed- 
ingly ;  for  the  enumeration  and  classification  of  the  simple 
human  rights,  he  thinks  not  only  hardly  possible,  but,  if 
actually  attempted,  dangerous.  He  considers  it  an  abso- 
lute error  to  term  these  fundamental  rights,  the  "rights  of 
men  and  citizens."  A  combination  of  this  kind  is,  according 
to  him,  nothing  but  an  absurdity.  Of  the  separate  articles 
of  the  declaration,  scarcely  a  single  one  is  left  unattacked, 
and  special  emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  fact  that  the  so- 

"Weick,  I,  20. 

"Ibid.,  I,  15  ff.,  186  ff.,  note,  257  f.,  note,  312,  note,  281,  note;  II,  34, 

"Ibid.,  I,  257  f.,  note. 

nlbid.,  II,  61  ff.,  H.  /.,  1800,  I,  58,  ff. 


559]  CONCEPTION  OP  THE  REVOLUTION  73 

called  "natural  rights"  are,  in  this  case,  only  the  result  of 
a  great  number  of  compromises.  Gentz  does  not  fail  to 
admit  that  the  declaration,  as  a  whole,  had  been  of  great 
historical  importance,  but  it  can  be  imagined  of  what  kind 
he  conceived  this  importance  to  be;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  lie 
unhesitatingly  attributes  to  this  declaration  a  great  part 
of  the  general  anarchy  which  followed  it. 

Extremely  severe  is  the  judgment  passed  upon  the 
Revolution  by  Gentz  in  1794.  The  list  of  sins  which  he 
attributes  to  it  in  the  introduction  and  the  notes  to  his 
translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan  has  now  become  a  formidable 
one,  and  one  cannot  help  being  struck  with  Gentz's  intense 
hatred  of  the  revolutionary  leaders.  He  refers  to  the  daily 
executions,  to  the  murder  of  the  royal  famity,  the  atheistic 
temples,  the  cult  of  Marat,  the  revolutionary  tendency 
to  worldiness,  the  destruction  of  the  Vendee  and  the  city  of 
Lyons,  to  the  superficial  speculations  and  the  self-compla- 
cency of  the  tribunes  of  the  people,  to  the  increasing  plun- 
dering of  the  rich,  the  disregard  of  all  morality  and  the 
tearing  down  of  everything  lofty,  adding  not  without  a 
certain  bitter  satisfaction  that  there  it  could  at  last  be 
seen  to  what  the  "madness  and  perversity  of  an  unre- 
strained people"  would  lead.79  References  to  the  cruelty 
and  phrase-mongering,  to  the  vanity,  the  lawlessness  and 
general  vulgarity  of  the  revolutionary  movement  and  its 
leaders  are  in  fact  to  be  found  almost  everywhere.80  Inci- 
dentally, Gentz  now  and  then  sums  up  these  characteristics 
of  the  Revolution  in  a  single  word,  and  speaks  of  "mob- 
tyranny,"  or  of  "the  systematic  reversal  of  all  social  con- 
ditions/'81 

In  his  Historisches  Journal  of  1799,  Gentz  exhibits,  to 
a  certain  degree,  the  assurance  of  one  who  has  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  his  warnings  justified  by  the  course 
of  events.  Here,  too,  he  speaks  of  the  injustice  and  tyranny 

''Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  vi  f.,  x. 
"Ibid.,  25  f.,  note,  56,  note,  94  ff.,  note,  150  f.,  note. 
"Ibid.,  pref.,  xii,  74  f.,  note. 


74  FRIEDBICH  GENTZ  [560 

of  the  Revolution,  of  its  harshness  against  the  upper 
classes  of  the  earlier  era,  of  its  hostility  towards  the  prop- 
erty-holders and,  above  all,  of  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people.82  As  to  the 
revolutionary  literature,  he  criticizes  its  entire  lack  of  con- 
sideration of  individual  rights,  its  tendency  to  go  to  ex- 
tremes and  the  desire  for  novelty,  its  discrediting  of  the 
value  of  moderation  and  experience,  its  lack  of  historical 
sense  and,  as  is  to  be  expected,  again,  its  doctrine  of  popu- 
lar sovereignty.83  He  repeats  the  idea  expressed  already 
in  the  manifesto  of  the  allies  of  the  year  1792,  and  later 
on  by  Mallet,  that  the  Revolution  was  equivalent  to  a  re- 
lapse toward  barbarism.84  With  especial  satisfaction,  how- 
ever, he  mentions  the  report  of  the  commissioner  Fran§ois 
of  June  21,  1798,  in  which  the  Directory  is  charged  with 
having  suppressed  all  and  every  form  of  freedom  in  France, 
the  political,  civil  and  personal  liberty,  the  freedom  of 
thought  and  the  safety  of  property.85  Likewise,  he  refers 
to  the  report  of  commissioner  Trouve  of  August  30,  1798, 
for  in  this  he  finds  a  description  of  the  conditions  in  the 
Cisalpine  Republic,  such  as  from  his  standpoint  he  could 
not  wish  any  better.  According  to  Trouve,  there  existed  in 
this  state  "a  government  without  means  and  strength, 
equally  powerless  to  accomplish  the  good  and  to  prevent 
the  evil,  an  ignorant,  wholly  pernicious  administration,  a 
military  equipment  which  despite  its  immense  costliness 
is  of  no  value  at  all,  a  complete  disorganization  of  finances, 
no  republican  institutions,  no  public  education,  no  con- 
nection existing  between  civil  laws,  on  all  hands  disobedi- 
ence, indifference,  unpunished  waste  of  public  money,  in  a 
word,  the  most  complete  and  most  horrible  anarchy."86 
These  then  were  the  alleged  blessings  of  the  Revolution ! 
To  the  relations  of  the  Revolution  to  other  powers, 

**//.  /.,  1799,  I,  57  ff.,  343,  note,  II,  145  ff.,  464  *• 
"Ibid.,  II,  138  ff. 
"Ibid.,  I,  29  f.,  note. 
"Ibid.,  II,  431  ff. 
"Ibid.,  I,  338  ff. 


561]  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  75 

Gentz  did  not  give,  for  a  long  time,  any  mentionable  atten- 
tion, other  than  to  fear  an  invasion  of  Europe  by  revolu- 
tionary principles.  The  war  which  had  been  dragging  on 
since  1792,  he  still  regards  even  in  1794  as,  on  the  whole, 
of  little  importance.  It  has  not  yet  brought  any  success  to 
the  allies,  and  cannot  be  carried  on  with  much  more  energy ; 
therefore,  Gentz  concludes,  it  would  probably  be  best  to 
let  France  alone.87  The  volcano  in  the  West,  however,  did 
not  burn  out ;  on  the  contrary,  the  danger  to  Europe  became 
more  and  more  serious.  The  year  1796  brought  the  inva- 
sion of  Jourdan  and  Moreau  into  central  and  southern 
Germany  and  Bonaparte's  brilliant  campaign  in  Italy; 
1797,  the  peace  of  Campo  Formio  and  the  opening  of  the 
Congress  of  Kastadt ;  1798,  the  French  occupation  of  Rome, 
the  intervention  in  Switzerland,  extensive  French  prepara- 
tions for  a  landing  in  England,  and  Bonaparte's  expedi- 
tion to  Egypt ;  finally  1800, — after  French  reverses  in  1798 
—two  victories  that,  according  to  Gentz,  were  the  most 
brilliant  which  the  revolutionary  armies  ever  had  gained.88 
By  the  end  of  1800,  France  had  thus  reconquered  its  great 
European  position  of  former  times.  It  now  stood  at  the 
head  of  a  confederation  which  embraced  almost  the  whole 
of  southern  Europe;  the  landmarks  of  the  Republic  had 
been  advanced  to  the  Rhine  and  at  its  head  stood — Bona- 
parte, in  Gentz's  opinion  the  first  really  significant  man 
of  the  Revolution.89  Besides,  the  great  problem  of  the  new 
territorial  arrangements  to  be  made  in  Germany,  the  re- 
sult of  the  peace  of  Lun&ville,  demanded  a  settlement,  and 
that  France  would  have  a  hand  in  this  could  not  be  doubt- 
ed for  one  moment.  Apprehensive  watchfulness  had  now 
apparently  become  imperative,  since  the  Revolution  had 
ceased  to  be  a  mere  intellectual  danger. 

The  first  indications  that  Gentz  was  aware  of  this 
are  to  be  found  in  two  letters  to  Garve  of  March  and  April, 
1798.90  French  politics,  he  writes  to  this  still  highly  re- 

"Translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  pref.,  xxxiii  ff. 

"Weick,  II,  333- 

"Ibid.,  II,  372,  note. 

"Brief e  v.  it.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  I,  206,  210. 


TO  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [562 

spected  friend,  have  now  risen  to  "such  tremendous  import- 
ance" that  one  cannot  avoid  devoting  to  them  doubled  at- 
tention. The  year  1798  is  even  now  the  most  significant 
of  all  the  years  of  the  revolutionary  era,  and  still  greater 
things  are  yet  to  be  expected :  the  outcome  of  the  expedition 
against  England  will  decide  the  fate  of  Europe;  if  it  suc- 
ceeds, and  if  within  the  next  six  months  no  new  conti- 
nental war  breaks  out,  then  the  tricolor  will  be  waving  at 
the  Vistula  even  before  the  close  of  the  century.  Europe 
seems  destined  to  encounter  in  this  present  year  fresh 
storms  and  further  destruction,  and  the  end  of  the  Revolu- 
tion is  not  yet  in  sight.  The  mention  which  Gentz  makes 
here  of  a  doubled  attentiveness  to  the  events  in  the  West 
was  not  merely  a  passing  idea;  he  indeed  does  become  ab- 
sorbed more  and  more  in  the  increasingly  complicated  in- 
ternational affairs  of  Europe.  Already  the  Historisches 
Journal  of  1799  contained  several  articles  on  the  matter, 
and  in  the  following  years  Gentz  is  well-nigh  given  up  to 
the  study  of  these  new  problems.  He  feels  that  the  first 
act  of  the  great  drama  is  ended ;  if  he  previously  has  hoped 
that  the  Revolution  would  consume  itself,  he  now  realizes 
definitely  that  this  can  no  longer  be  thought  of. 

The  picture  that  he  draws  of  the  European  situation 
in  the  second  half  of  1800  must,  therefore,  unavoidably  be 
a  gloomy  one.91  The  war  had  now  lasted  eight  years,  for 
eight  years  he  himself  had  fought  for  the  good  cause,  and 
yet — what  had  been  achieved!  The  Revolution  was  not 
yet  ended;  on  the  contrary,  it  had  established  itself  in  the 
European  family  and  was  more  dangerous  than  ever.  For 
a  moment,  it  is  true,  Gentz  believed  that  the  Coup  d'fitat 
meant  its  formal  conclusion.92  But  he  soon  abandons  this 
hope,  and  even  while  entertaining  it,  he  expected  far  more 
for  the  internal  conditions  of  France  than  for  the  relations 
of  that  country  to  the  other  powers;  for  these  he  regards, 
even  after  1799,  only  with  suspicion  and  concern.  What 

"//.  /.,  1800,  II,  394  ft.,  Ill,  788  ff. 
KCf.  p.  86f. 


563]  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  77 

would  the  future  bring?  France,  he  thinks,  has  been,  to 
the  present,  the  centre  of  Europe  and  will  continue  to  be 
so  for  some  time  to  come ;  as  long  as  it  retains  its  spirit  of 
restlessness  and  of  military  agression,  Europe  will  have  to 
tremble.  The  era  of  blood  is  then  not  yet  at  an  end;  the 
French  sword  but  rests  in  the  scabbard,  and  this  scabbard 
may  be  thrown  aside  at  any  moment.  A  warrior  state  has 
established  itself  in  the  western  part  of  the  Continent  whose 
finances  are,  it  is  true,  irreparably  ruined,  whose  expans- 
ive powers,  however,  remain  unweakened ;  its  trade  is  war, 
and  without  war  it  cannot  exist.  And  the  present?  It  is 
bad  enough.  The  Revolution,  Gentz  states  at  the  end 
of  1800,  has  destroyed  the  old  political  system  of  Europe, 
it  has  altered  the  beautiful  balance  of  power  among  the  na- 
tions, has  set  might  above  right,  has  made  war  universal, 
and  has"  accustomed  the  world  to  usurpation  and  violence. 
The  path  to  peace  leads  through  numerous  further  strug- 
gles, and  that,  he  concludes,  "is  the  sad  legacy  with  which 
the  closing  eighteenth  century  endows  the  present  genera- 
tion, and  perhaps  many  a  one  to  come." 

As  to  the  secret  of  the  republican  successes,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  a  problem  so  eminently  practical  necessarily 
made  a  strong  appeal  to  a  man  such  as  Gentz.  He  touches 
upon  it  more  than  once,  most  extensively  in  his  work, 
Uber  den  Urspmng  mid  Chamktcr  des  Kriegc?  grgcn  <Jic 
franzosischc  Revolution,  published  in  1801,  where  he  ex- 
presses himself  as  follows.03  He  begins  with  a  refernce  to 
the  very  favorable  strategic  position  of  France,  to  the 
fertilitv  of  its  soil,  to  its  wealth  and  the  efficiencv  of  its 

»/ 

inhabitants;  this,  he  thinks,  explains  the  riddle  in  part, 
but,  it  is  true,  by  no  means  fully.  In  the  last  analysis, 
he  finds,  the  republican  successes  can  be  explained  only 
from  two  causes,  from  the  spirit  of  the  Revolution  itself 
and  from  the  mistakes  of  its  enemies.  In  how  far,  then, 
from  the  Revolution  itself?  Not,  perhaps,  to  the  extent 
which  would  have  been  true  if  really  great  talents  had  been 

"Weick,  II,  306  ff.,  371  ff. 


78  FRIBDRICH  GENTZ  [564 

at  its  disposal;  Gentz  is  at  best  ready  to  grant  that  the 
Revolution  produced  military  talent.  It  was  brought  about 
by  parvenus  and  mediocre  intelligences,  and  did  not  until 
Bonaparte  appeared  give  birth  to  any  really  great  man. 
Of  the  military  talents  existing  within  the  nation  it  did 
make  full  use,  and  in  this  lies  one  of  the  causes  of  its  suc- 
cess. It  has  further  carried  on  the  war  in  an  entirely  new 
fashion,  which  will  now  have  to  be  adopted  by  other 
European  powers.  The  resources  of  France  were  put  to 
the  severest  test  and,  in  many  regards,  exhausted  for  a  long 
time  to  come,  but  despite  all  waste,  it  supported  itself  and 
withstood  the  attack  from  all  sides,  for  in  time  it  had 
learned  the  lesson  that  a  war  could  be  carried  on  even 
without  money.  Wherever  it  went,  it  found  the  soil  ready 
for  its  seed:  everywhere  it  met  partisans,  its  first  blow 
fell  upon  a  disunited  Germany,  and  the  terror  which  pre- 
ceded its  coming  did  the  rest.  Above  all,  it  is  true,  the 
Revolution  stirred  up  the  enthusiasm  of  the  French  people. 
Even  though  this  might  fluctuate,  it  never  really  died  out; 
at  any  rate  it  sufficed,  as  conditions  then  were,  since  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  allied  troops  always  remained  within 
narrow  bounds.  The  country  had  to  be  saved,  the  world  to 
be  freed  and  avenged,  and  the  conspirators  to  be  punished ; 
forward,  then,  in  the  name  of  freedom !  Who  could  resist 
such  an  appeal?  And  thus  the  armies  of  the  Republic 
marched  against  the  enemy,  poorly  drilled  and  poorly 
clothed,  but  surrounded  by  and  filled  with  the  magic  of  the 
revolutionary  faith,  until  gradually  there  arose  a  new  and 
equally  powerful  agent  of  victory :  the  ambition  of  invinci- 
bility. In  spite  of  all  this  splendid  energy  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, however,  its  success,  Gentz  assumes,  never  would  have 
come  to  pass,  if  the  Coalition  had  not  made  the  gravest 
mistakes.  An  iron  destiny  had  brought  this  great  crisis 
upon  Europe ;  it  was  a  case,  therefore,  of  either  submitting 
to  it  or  of  putting  everything  at  stake  against  it.  The 
Coalition  chose  the  policy  of  resistance,  but  did  not  throw 
all  its  energies  into  the  struggle;  it  blundered  in  its  choice 
of  the  moment  for  opening  hostilities,  it  underrated  the 


565]  DUTIES  OF  EUROPE  79 

resources  of  the  enemy,  possessed  no  military  leaders  of 
real  significance  and  came  to  no  concerted  action.  The 
result  of  it  all,  naturally,  was  in  keeping  with  the  effort. 

But  what  now?  This  was,  after  all,  the  paramount 
question.  Should  the  fight  go  on,  or  was  it  better  to  let 
things  take  their  own  course?  Gentz  is  for  the  former. 
But  he  does  not  look  for  success  as  long  as  the  old  methods 
are  adhered  to;  new  ways  and  means  must  be  tried,  and 
such  he  believes  to  have  discovered.94  The  course  of  the 
revolutionary  wars  has  shown  to  him  what  could  be  done 
by  a  nation  that  was  ready  to  make  any  sacrifices;  he  de- 
mands, therefore,  that  the  example  given  here  be  followed. 
Let  public  enthusiasm  be  exhorted,  be  aroused;  let  the 
revolutionary  arguments  be  met  in  print,  through  sermons 
and  popular  instruction;  let  the  unfit  be  eliminated  and 
the  talented  be  supported ;  and  change  the  methods  of  war- 
fare !  But  this,  he  thinks,  will  by  no  means  suffice.  What 
is  needed,  above  all,  are  coalitions  that  will  carry  on  the 
war  with  republican  energy  and  will  be  strong  enough  to 
insure  success.  But  what  coalitions  should  these  be? 
Gentz  has  in  mind,  especially,  one  between  Austria  and 
Prussia,  for  this,  if  once  consummated,  would  not  only  in 
itself  represent  a  formidable  combination,  but  would  also 
bring  about  the  union  of  the  whole  of  Europe  outside  of 
France.  Prussia  must  give  up  its  neutrality,  this  then  is  the 
advice  which  Gentz  now  gives,  disagreeing  entirely  with 
his  earlier  tendencies.  In  1797,95  and  even  in  the  beginning 
of  1799,90  he  still  recommended  to  Prussia  a  policy  of  re- 
serve. In  May,  1799,  however,  he  seems  to  wish  a  more  or 
less  decisive  and  warlike  line  of  action  on  Prussia's  part  ;97 
in  1800,  he  censures  Prussia's  attitude  during  the  previous 
year,08  and  in  1801,  he  finally  comes  out  openly  in  favor  of 

"Weick,  II,  355  ff.,  367  ff.,  373  ff.,  Von  dem  polilischen  Zustande  von 
Eurofia  vor  und  nach  der  fransosischen  Revolution,  cf.  Guglia,  Friedrich 
von  Gentz,  168  f. 

"Weick,  V,  7,  g. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  I,  323. 

"Ibid.,  I,  332. 

"Histor.  Zeitschr.,  LXXXIX,  245  ff. 


80  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [566 

the  Austrian-Prussian  coalition.  He  is  even  ready  to  con- 
sent to  a  temporary  suspension  of  the  imperial  constitu- 
tion, if  thereby  a  better  use  could  be  made  of  Germany's 
powers;  at  the  outbreak  of  the  revolutionary  war,  or  at 
least  during  it,  he  thinks,  the  Emperor  should  have  been 
officially  clothed  with  the  provisional  powers  of  a  dictator 
for  the  southern  half  of  the  "Empire",  and  the  king  of 
Prussia  likewise,  for  its  northern  half."  That  in  the 
future  such  states  as  Switzerland  should  be  allowed  to 
remain  neutral  he  considers  improbable;  at  any  rate,  he 
himself  would  not  be  able  to  approve  of  such  a  policy. 
Whoever,  he  declares,  does  not  join  the  cause  of  justice,  of 
his  own  free  will,  can  and  must  be  forced  to  do  so;  for  in 
situations  like  the  present,  there  is  but  one  right  to  be 
recognized,  that  of  necessity. 

It  was  for  Gentz  a  matter  of  course  that  the  one  power 
to  which,  before  all  others,  he  looked  for  help,  England 
would  in  time  unite  itself  with  this  continental  coalition. 
This  is  even  a  matter  of  the  heart  with  him.  For,  whenever 
he  speaks  of  England,  he  speaks  of  it  only  in  hyperboles: 
the  rock  of  justice,  the  home  of  religion  and  of  reverence 
for  the  customs  of  the  fathers,  the  starting  point  of  all 
beneficent  and  truly  cosmopolitan  undertakings,  the  centre 
of  industry  and  trade,  and  the  born  and  permanent  ally  of 
the  well  understood  interests  of  all  nations — all  this  and 
more  England  seems  to  him.100  That  it  was  also  possible 
to  hear  quite  different  remarks  about  this  same  England, 
is  not  unknown  to  Gentz,  for  he  too  has  heard  them;  but 
he  purposes  to  show  that  such  words  are  but  stupid  or 
malicious  calumny.101  What  then  were  the  charges  against 
England?  A  monopoly  of  industry  and  trade,  the  starva- 
tion of  the  Continent,  the  destruction  of  the  freedom  of  the 
seas?  Gentz  does  not  deny  that  England  now,  at  the  end 
of  the  century,  does  possess  a  monopoly  of  industry  and 
trade  and  a  supremacy  over  the  seas;  most  emphatically  he 

-Weick,  II,  369  f. 

""//.  /.,  1800,  III,  492  ff. 

lnlbid.,  1799,  I,  395-439;  HI,  38o  f.;  1800,  III,  496  f. 


567]  VIEWS  ON  ENGLAND  81 

contends,  however,  that  the  British  power  does  not  threaten 
the  rest  of  Europe  outside  of  France,  and  calls  special 
attention  to  the  fact  that  this  power  was  only  the  direct 
result  of  the  Revolution  itself.  The  line  of  argumentation 
used  by  him  to  support  this  standpoint  is  about  as  follows: 
1.  The  English  industrial  and  trade  monopoly,  and  the 
English  maritime  supremacy  are  chiefly  the  consequences 
of  the  hopeless  inner  conditions  of  France,  and,  only  to  a 
subordinate  degree,  of  the  ability  of  the  English  them- 
selves ;  2.  England  cannot  mean  to  wish  the  poverty  of  the 
Continent  in  its  own  interest,  for  poor  neighbors  are  also 
poor  customers;  3.  England,  will,  because  of  its  high  de- 
velopment and  its  lofty  principles,  never  become  "really 
menacing"  to  any  state;  4.  a  substitution  of  France  for 
England  would  not  be  advantageous  for  the  interests  of 
Europe;  the  destruction  of  the  English  position,  without 
at  the  same  time  providing  for  a  compensation,  would  even 
be  a  calamity;  5.  the  ideal  condition  would  be  that  of  an 
equal  apportionment  of  the  sea-trade  among  the  three  great 
trading  nations,  England,  France  and  Holland,  and  of  the 
intermediate  trade  among  the  trading  states  of  second 
rank;  such  a  condition  of  equilibrium  existed  before  the 
Revolution  and  will  return  as  soon  as  Europe  will  have 
attained  to  a  true  peace.  England  is,  therefore,  as  it  now 
is,  the  blessing  and  the  last  hope  of  the  world.  "For  this 
reason,"  Gentz  declares,  "every  thinking  person  and  every 
heart  that  wishes  the  human  race  well  must  take  an  active 
interest  in  the  British  nation,  even  though  every  personal 
interest  were  ever  so  far  removed;  for  this  reason,  no  en- 
lightened European  will  be  able  to  perceive  England's 
prosperity  without  exclaiming  with  that  dying  patriot: 
Ksto  pcrpetna!"102 

The  praise  that  Gentz  thus  bestows  upon  the  English 
state  and  nation  is  indeed  a  very  high  one;  it  is,  however, 
not  on  that  account  less  genuine.  How  are  we  to  explain 
it?  Certainly  not  from  the  fact  that  Gentz,  at  this  time, 
was  coming  into  closer  touch  with  the  British  government 

1M//.  /.,  1799,  III,  381. 


82  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [568 

and  was  received  into  its  service;  this  may  have  been  of 
some  significance,  but  surely  not  of  fundamental  import- 
ance. No,  the  praise  was  genuine,  coming  from  a  man  who 
flattered  only  when  he  could  do  so  with  conviction.  And 
was  it,  after  all,  so  out  of  the  ordinary  to  feel  admiration 
for  the  greatness  of  the  British  name?  Many  felt  this,  why 
then  not  Gentz  as  well?  Why  not  he  of  all  others?  Eng- 
land was,  as  he  believed,  the  last  bulwark  against  the 
French  flood,  and  the  permanent  defender  of  that  European 
balance  of  power,  which  was  so  dear  to  him;  it  possessed 
a  well-tempered  form  of  government;  it  breathed  by  its 
subsidies  ever  new  life  into  the  struggle  against  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  had  preserved  much  of  the  aristrocratic  perfume 
of  the  ancient  regime ;  how  could  Gentz  have  failed  to  adore 
such  a  country!  As  a  matter  of  fact,  his  sympathy  for 
England  extended — witli  interruptions — even  beyond  the 
Revolution  and  Napoleon:  as  late  as  1819  he  defends  its 
policies  against  the  attacks  of  the  Abbe  de  Pradt.103  Later 
his  sympathy,  it  is  true,  waned  considerably. 

Whether  Gentz,  by  this,  showed  himself  an  impartial 
and  clear-sighted  judge  of  actual  conditions  may,  of  course, 
be  doubted.  He  had  early  identified  himself  with  a  definite 
line  of  policy,  from  which  he  would  not  and  could 
not  depart  easily  later  on.  Furthermore,  the  transactions 
of  the  cabinets  were  known  to  him  only  in  outline,  or  so 
far  as  the  official  reports  about  them  had  been  made  public ; 
on  a  basis  like  this,  a  proper  orientation  was,  however,  im- 
possible. Finally,  there  was  what  we  may  call  Gentz's 
continentalism.  His  eyes  were  always  turned,  first  of  all, 
toward  the  West,  for  there  he  saw  the  lurking  danger  to 
Germany  and  to  the  Continent;  but  that  this  same  West, 
France,  in  turn  might  be  looking  toward  the  North  and 
feel  itself  challenged  and  threatened  from  that  direction, 
he  never  seriously  considered. 

For  about  ten  years,  from  1792  to  1801,  Gentz  thus 
fought  against  republican  France  with  a  pen  dipped  in  hate 
and  fear.  Then  he  buried  himself  in  silence  for  a  brief 

~Weick,  V,  289  ff.,  298  ff. 


569]  SUSPENSION  OP  THE  STRUGGLE  83 

moment;  he  believed  he  had  reasons  to  assume  that  the 
Revolution  now  had  ended,  and  besides,  his  political  affairs 
had  temporarily  become  too  much  deranged.  But  in 
1803  he  again  takes  up  his  rejected  pen  and  plunges  into  a 
new  struggle.  As  it  seems,  he  has  deceived  himself:  the 
Revolution  is,  after  all,  apparently  not  yet  over;  so  he  is 
fighting  once  more,  this  time,  however,  against  the  ambi- 
tions of  one  single  man,  the  heir  of  the  Revoltuion, 
Napoleon  Bonaparte. 

To  show  what  form  this  second  struggle  of  Gentz's 
took  will  be  the  purpose  of  the  following  chapter. 


III.    THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON 
1.     BEFORE  THE  STRUGGLE:   1798-1802. 

On  the  ninth  of  November,  1799,  Napoleon  by  the  Coup 
d'fitat  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  French  nation;  on 
the  second  of  August,  1802,  he  was  elected  by  a  plebiscite, 
consul  for  life;  and  on  the  eighteenth  of  May,  1804,  the 
Senate  and  the  Tribunes  proclaimed  him  emperor  of  the 
French. 

These  three  events  formed  at  once  the  end  and  the  con- 
solidation of  the  Eevolution.  Napoleon  liked  to  call  him- 
self the  child  of  the  latter,  and  in  a  certain  sense, 
rightly  so ;  he  was,  however,  as  much  its  subduer  as  its  heir, 
and  one  may  be  in  doubt  as  to  whether  he  should  be  viewed 
more  from  the  one  standpoint  than  from  the  other. 

The  four  constitutions  of  his  reign — those  of  1799, 
1802,  1804  and  1815 — were  formally,  at  least,  founded  on 
popular  sovereignty.  The  constitution  of  1799  was  sub- 
mitted to  a  plebiscite,  of  the  two  of  1802  and  1804  only  one, 
but  the  principal  question  was  placed  before  the  people. 
Two  other  fundamental  principles  of  the  Revolution,  those 
of  equality  and  of  individual  liberty,  Napoleon  also  main- 
tained in  a  certain  sense,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the 
new  apportionment  of  property  brought  about  by  the  Revo- 
lution; his  highly  developed  system  of  police  supervision 
limited,  it  is  true,  this  liberty  in  no  inconsiderable  measure. 
In  the  sphere  of  foreign  politics,  Napoleon  took  over  from 
the  Revolution  above  all  the  hostility  towards  England  in 
general,  then  the  idea  of  invading  the  British  Isles  and  at- 
tacking the  English  position  in  India,  the  exclusion  of  Eng- 
lish goods  from  French  territories  and  the  strengthening  of 
the  trade  and  war  marine  of  France ;  to  this  go  back  also  his 
military  tactics,  his  efforts  to  build  up  the  French  colonial 
system  and  his  desire  to  convert  the  Mediterranean  into  a 
purely  French  lake.  Whether  he  took  over  anything  more 
is  a  question  at  once  difficult  to  answer  and  important,  the 

84 


571]  NAPOLEON  AND  THE  REVOLUTION       •  85 

solution  of  which  is,  as  it  seems,  well-nigh  impossible. 
It  is  undeniable  that  Napoleon  continued  the  expansion 
policy  of  the  Revolution  and  that  he  was,  generally,  acting 
upon  the  offensive;  likewise  it  could  be  shown  that  he  per- 
sonally liked  best  of  all  to  be  on  the  field  and  in  battle. 
But  this  does  not  yet  explain  why  he  entered,  as  he  did, 
upon  the  career  of  a  conqueror.  Did  he  do  so  on  his  own 
impulsion  or  through  the  force  of  circumstances?  Eng- 
land's verdict  was  that  the  blame  lay  entirely  in  Napoleon's 
infamy,  and  on  the  Continent  many  were  of  the  same 
opinion ;  Napoleon,  on  the  other  hand,  pointed  to  England 
as  the  real  disturber  of  the  peace  of  Europe.  Thus  the 
discussion  turned  back  and  forth,  and  the  problem  is  not 
really  settled  even  at  the  present  time. 

If  Napoleon  was  the  heir  of  the  Revolution,  he  was  still 
in  another  sense  its  overthrower.  He  restored  the 
monarchy,  ordered  anew  the  administration,  gave  support 
to  industry,  and  brought  back  from  their  banishment  law 
and  religion.  As  has  been  noted,  he  held,  in  a  general  way, 
to  the  principle  of  equality;  he  preferred,  however,  the 
soldier  to  the  citizen  and  naturally  saw  to  it  that  the  im- 
portant posts  in  the  government  were  filled  with  dependable 
men.  Republican  simplicity  soon  disappeared  under  him; 
even  during  the  Consulate  it  began  to  be  a  legend.  Like- 
wise, republican  loquacity  now  grew  silent;  it  especially 
displeased  the  new  head  of  the  state  and  was  anyhow  of 
doubtful  advantage. 

Napoleon's  two-fold  relation  to  the  Revolution  caused 
Gentz  to  pass  judgment  on  him  quite  differently.  Imme- 
diately after  the  Coup  d'Btat,  Gentz  believes  him  to  be  the 
man  who  has  subdued  anarchy.  As  early  as  1802,  however, 
he  becomes  uncertain,  for  he  has  heard  that  France  in  the 
meantime  made  new  annexations.  From  about  1803  on,  he 
sees,  therefore,  in  Napoleon  little  else  than  the  heir  of  the 
Revolution,  especially  of  its  policy  of  expansion;  the  per- 
sonal position  of  the  new  ruler,  it  is  true,  he  regards,  after 
1804,  as  legitimatized.  During  the  war  of  1813-14,  Gentz's 
views  take  a  new  turn  in  that  after  1813  he  emphatically 


86  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [572 

defends  the  Napoleonic  Empire  whose  existence  was  now 
threatened ;  for  he  now  sees  in  it  a  dam  against  the  desire 
for  expansion  of  the  Eastern  powers. 

Gentz  mentions  Napoleon  for  the  first  time  in  a  letter 
of  March,  1798,  in  which  he  calls  him  the  "blood-dripping" 
creator  of  the  Italian  republics  and  expresses  the  hope  that 
this  new  celebrity  may  never  rise  to  the  position  of  dictator 
of  France.1  His  next  utterances  come  in  the  first  half  of 
1799.  Napoleon  had,  in  the  meantime,  sailed  to  Egypt; 
what  will  he  accomplish?  Gentz  awaits  in  suspense,  as 
does  everyone  else,2  further  news,  but  considers  the  expedi- 
tion as  hazardous.3  His  interest,  nevertheless,  is  aroused ; 
he  is  convinced  that  the  young  general  deserves  from  now 
on  careful  watching.  And  as  a  matter  of  fact  Napoleon 
began  just  then  to  get  attention  from  every  quarter.  People 
began  to  see  in  him  the  coming  dictator  of  France ;  Wieland 
expressed  this  idea  publicly  as  early  as  March,  1798,  and 
again  in  January,  1799,  while  others  cherished  it  in  secret. 
Gentz  knows  of  these  hopes,  but  at  present  he  is  not  pre- 
pared to  share  them.  Even  in  1794,  it  is  true,  he  reckons 
with  the  possibility  of  a  dictatorship  in  France;4  the  idea 
that  the  coming  dictator  is  to  be  a  general  is,  however, 
against  his  wishes.  Bonaparte's  qualities  as  a  statesman, 
he  declares  in  March,  1799,  are  overrated;  he  may  begin 
revolutions  readily  enough — as  the  one  of  1797  in  Upper 
Italy — but  he  cannot  end  them.5  In  August,  1799,  Gentz 
is  still  prophesying  for  France  "an  endless,  continuous 
series  of  revolutions  and  catastrophes."6 

Things  were,  however,  not  destined  to  come  to  such  a 
pass,  for  the  harvest  was  ripe  and  the  reaper  at  hand.  Three 
months  after  this  prophesy  there  indeed  came  a  new  revolu- 
tion in  France,  but  it  was  to  be  the  last  for  a  long  time: 
the  Ooup  d?6tat.  Gentz  expresses  himself  on  it  in  the 

*Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  252. 

*H.  ].,  1799,  I,  62,  79. 

'Ibid.,  I,  390.,  note. 

translation  of  Mallet  du  Pan,  146,  note. 

*Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  255. 

•Pf.  /.,  1799,  IT,  456. 


573]  EARLY  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  NAPOLEON  87 

December  number  of  the  Historisches  Journal  for  1799.7 
The  tone  of  his  discussion  is  sympathetic  and  hopeful.  He 
sees  in  the  Coup  d'fitat  the  first  real  revolution  since  1789, 
and  the  transition  of  the  previous  form  of  French  govern- 
ment into  a  dictatorship,  which  he  terms  a  "provisional" 
one.  He  considers  it  possible  that  torn  and  devastated 
France  now  will  recover;  this  recovery,  he  thinks,  will,  of 
course,  take  a  long  time,  but  the  prospects  are  good, 
although  Napoleon  still  has  to  prove  that  he  possesses 
statesmanlike  qualities.8  Gentz  does  not  forget  to  empha- 
size the  fact  that  Napoleon  obtained  possession  of  the  gov- 
ernment by  unjust  means;  he  hopes,  therefore,  that  his 
dictatorship  may  form  a  mere  transition  to  orderly  rela- 
tions, that  is  to  "universal  justice,  security  of  person  and 
of  property,  the  reign  of  law,  stability  of  government."9 
Perhaps  he  is  most  satisfied  by  what  he  believes  to  be  the 
honestly  pacific  intentions  of  the  new  ruler;  "for  the  first 
time,"  he  declares,  "since  the  Republic  came  into  being,  the 
desire  for  peace  seems  not  to  be  a  trick  of  war  or  a  cloak 
for  extortion." 

But  Gentz's  hopeful  frame  of  mind  was  not  long  to 
continue.  In  the  summer  of  1802,  disconcerting  news  be- 
gan to  arrive  from  the  West;  it  was  heard  that  Napoleon 
had  been  chosen  consul  for  life,  that  he  had  annexed  Elba 
and  Piedmont  and  had  interfered  with  the  internal  affairs 
of  Switzerland.  Worse  than  this  was  the  fact  that  France 
laid  claim  to  a  controlling  influence  in  the  territorial  re- 
arrangement of  Germany,  and  even  actually  exerted  it. 
The  dreaded  spectre  of  French  ambition  was,  then,  once 
more,  looming  up;  again  the  all-absorbing  question  was: 
what  next?  Gentz  suddenly  awoke  from  his  dreaming,  and 
the  mood  which  is  now  animating  him  is  shown  by  two  of 
his  letters  to  Adam  Muller  from  September  and  October, 
1802.10  Personally  he  is  exceptionally  hopeful,  for  he 

'Ibid.,  Ill,  436-478. 

'Ibid.,  1800,  I,  364  ff. 

•Ibid.,  1799,  HI,  477  f- 

"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  368  ff.,  372. 


88  FRIEDBICH  GEXTZ  [574 

is  just  returning  from  Vienna  with  the  commission  of  im- 
perial counsellor  in  his  pocket ;  but  as  regards  the  political 
situation  he  exhibits  grave  anxiety.  "I  am,"  he  writes, 
"satisfied  with  fame  and  honor;  I  have  not  learned  much 
that  is  pleasant  or  comforting,  but  much  notwithstanding, 
very  much;  now  I  really  know  how  deep  the  wounds  of 
Europe  are,  but  I  know  too  where  the  healing  herbs  are  to 
be  found I  regard  myself  as  one  of  the  instru- 
ments whereby  Europe  is  again  to  be  raised  to  its  own. 
.  .  .  .  There  can  and  must  be  no  peace  so  long  as 
crime  goes  on  unpunished ;  I  would  sooner  see  the  world  in 
flames  than  see  it  perish  in  this  deadly  marasmus."  Thus 
he  writes,  it  is  true,  only  to  a  friend.  Before  the  public  he 
remains  silent,  for  the  time  being;  as  he  tells  us  later,  he 
dared  do  nothing  more  than  "sigh  in  silence"  at  the  deeds 
of  Bonaparte.11  Soon,  however,  he  is  to  fight  once  more. 

2.     1803-1809. 

The  new  struggle  Gentz  conducted  no  longer  from  Ber- 
lin, but  from  Vienna.  For  there  he  had  taken  up  his  resi- 
dence in  February,  1803. 

He  left,  if  one  is  to  believe  his  own  statements,  the 
scene  of  his  previous  activity  with  a  heavy  heart;  for  he 
could  not,  as  he  declares,  hope  ever  again  to  be  so  loved, 
so  honored  and  so  considerately  treated  as  he  had  been 
there.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  he  had  then  played  out 
in  Berlin.  Until  the  fall  of  1802  he  stood,  nominally,  still 
in  the  service  of  the  Prussian  state;  but  after  1800  he  was 
only  occasionally  occupied,  and  filled  his  time  with  literary 
work,  with  trips  to  watering-places,  complaints  at  his  lack 
of  prospects,  and  wild  dissipation.12  He  had  grown  thor- 
oughly disgusted  with  the  tedious  bureaucratic  routine,  and 
also  with  the  insignificance  of  his  own  position;  besides, 
there  were  unpleasant  domestic  scenes,  ever  increasing 
debts,  a  somewhat  shattered  personal  reputation,  and  the 
difficulties  which  the  Prussian  government  now  put  in  the 

"Weick,  IV,  130,  note. 

"Festschrift  zu  G.  Schmoller's  70,  Geburtstag,  155. 


575]  APPOINTMENT  AT  VIENNA  89 

way  of  his  activity  as  a  publicist.  In  this  manner,  things 
could  not  go  on  any  longer,  that  he,  himself,  saw  clearly; 
something,  then,  had  to  be  done.  But  what?  Gentz 
thought  of  moving  to  Vienna,  and  offered  his  services  there, 
as  he  himself  later  tells,13  in  the  summer  of  1802,  appar- 
ently in  August.  He  had  become  acquainted  with  Counts 
Stadion  and  Metternich,  the  imperial  representatives  at 
Berlin  and  Dresden,  and  thanks  to  their  recommendations, 
to  the  support  of  the  imperial  counsellor  Fassbender  and, 
above  all,  the  intercession  of  Count  Cobenzl,  he  succeeded 
in  September,  1802,  in  entering  the  Austrian  service. 

It  is  not  uninteresting  to  study  the  intentions  and 
expectations  entertained  on  both  sides.  On  the  part  of 
Gentz,  hope  was  as  indefinite  as  it  was  boundless.  While 
returning  from  Vienna,  he  informed  Adam  JMuller  of  his 
prospects,  and  enumerated  the  alleged  main  points  of 
the  contract:  an  income  of  6000  florins,  a  pension  of  4000 
florins,  a  patent  of  nobility  and  the  grant  of  other  titles  as 
soon  as  he  should  manifest  his  desire  for  sucli  honors,  free 
choice  of  occupation,  and  deliverance  from  all  "slavish" 
bureaucratic  work;  he  has,  therefore,  as  he  adds,  "even 
opportunity  for  unlimited  activities  and  prospects  such  as 
would  satisfy  the  wildest  ambition."14  The  liberation  from 
bureaucratic  work  he  also  mentions  in  a  letter  to  Brinck- 
mann  of  1803  ;13  in  his  letter  of  resignation  to  the  king  of 
Prussia  lie  remarks  that  only  the  one  condition  had  been 
imposed  upon  him,  to  move  there  and  to  continue  his  lit- 
erary work.16  Information  that  is  considerably  different, 
however,  and  without  doubt  more  correct,  we  get  in  turning 
to  the  Austrian  side.17  The  man  who  was  pushing  Gentz's 
appointment  there  more  than  any  other  and  finally  carried 
it  through,  was  Ludwig  Cobenzl,  the  actual  head  of  the 
Austrian  foreign  office.  Cobenzl  had  for  some  time  been 

""Tagebiicher,"  I,  22. 

"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  ft,  369. 

"Ibid.,  II,  128. 

"Schlesier,  V.  17  f. 

"Fournier,  Gentz  und  Cobensl,  191  ff. 


90  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [576 

convinced  that,  in  the  future,  Austria's  politics  must  be 
more  energetically  championed  before  the  public,  and  now 
believed  that  he  had  found  in  Gentz  the  right  man  for  this 
task.  His  plan  was  to  get  the  latter  away  from  Prussia, 
and  to  tie  him  to  Austria.  There  he  was,  at  first,  to  be 
busied  with  smaller  tasks,  until  he  had  shown  himself  ac- 
climated and  fully  reliable.  After  that,  he  might  be  taken 
over  into  the  Staatskanzlei  as  a  regular  official  and  his  pen 
made  use  of  on  a  larger  scale;  he  was,  however,  to  remain 
under  the  directions  of  the  two  heads  of  the  foreign  office. 
In  accordance  with  this  plan,  the  contract  was  shaped ;  its 
chief  points  were :  1.  Gentz  was,  without  being  appointed 
as  a  regular  official,  to  receive  4000  florins  a  year  and  the 
title  of  imperial  counsellor;  2.  his  duty  was  "to  devote  all 
his  powers  for  the  best  interest  of  the  imperial  service,  ac- 
cording to  the  commissions  and  directions  given  him,  and 
with  the  most  faithful  and  obedient  devotion."  To  this 
Cobenzl  added  orally  that  he  intended  to  be  a  stern  chief 
and  hoped  he  would  have  to  experience  no  disappointment. 
Gentz,  as  Cobenzl  states,  accepted  the  conditions  with  the 
keenest  pleasure  and  promised  to  undertake  nothing  what- 
soever without  the  authorization  of  those  in  power. 

Gentz  had  hardly  arrived  in  Vienna  when  he  began  to 
throw  himself  into  the  whirlpool  of  society.18  The  first 
fortnight  formed  "a  continual  round  from  dinner  to  supper, 
from  coterie  to  coterie" ;  of  business  he  did  not  even  think : 
it  was,  as  he  declared,  not  to  hinder  him  "from  being  as 
free,  as  merry,  as  wicked,  as  oratorical,  and  as  poetical  as 
we  may  wish  to  be."  There  was  no  lack  of  night  birds  of 
his  own  type  in  Vienna,  and  one  of  those  with  whom  he 
turned  night  into  day  was  none  other  than  Stadion.  Did 
he  find  the  new  surroundings  more  attractive  than  the  old  ? 
As  it  seems,  he  could  not  yet  become  quite  clear  on  this 
point.  The  women,  he  states,  are  very  charming,  and  the 
air  of  Vienna  in  general  is  possessed  of  a  narcotic  charm; 
on  the  other  hand,  in  most  of  the  large  houses  an  exceeding 
emptiness  and  monotony  may  be  found.  Everything  is 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  108  f.,  in  f.,  126  f.,  140. 


577]  APPOINTMENT  AT  VIENNA  91 

divided  into  coteries  with  no  points  of  reunion  existing; 
one  must,  therefore,  choose  his  circle.  He  himself,  is  mov- 
ing in  those  of  the  Countess  Kinsky,  of  the  Princesses  Lich- 
nowsky  and  Gallitzin  and  of  Prince  Lobkowitz;  in  all  he 
has  more  than  a  half  dozen  of  them,  Stadion,  however,  per- 
haps twenty.  In  the  circles  here  mentioned  are  not  included 
those  of  the  foreign  embassies;  in  these,  too,  Gentz  was  in 
part,  a  frequent  guest :  he  visited  particularly  the  houses  of 
the  Russian  ambassador,  Count  Rasumowsky,  and  those  of 
the  representatives  of  England  and  Sweden,  Paget  and 
Armfeldt.  His  feelings  represented  a  mixture  of  immense 
satisfaction  and  growing  displeasure.  "I  am  honoured, 
feted  and  caressed,"  he  writes  in  April,  1803,  "on  all  sides" ; 
but  he  adds:  "my  real  activity,  however,  can  only  begin 
when  certain  changes  have  been  effected  which  may  perhaps 
be  nearer  than  many  think."  The  spirit  of  the  time,  as  he 
sees  it,  too,  is  causing  him  distress ;  the  human  race,  he  re- 
marks with  bitterness  in  the  summer  of  1803,  is  just  good 
enough  to  be  drowned  in  a  general  flood.19 

Gentz  then  wished  for  a  new,  a  real  activity.  What 
was  it  to  be?  At  first,  he  expected,  probably,  only  a  share  in 
the  decisions  concerning  questions  of  foreign  policy,  later 
however,  apparently  even  the  position  of  minister  of  state 
itself;20  in  addition,  he  intended,  of  course,  to  fight 
Napoleon,  the  "monster".21  He  hoped  and  waited,  but 
nothing  seemed  to  result.  He  turned  to  Cobenzl,  only  to 
receive  the  answer  that  the  time  for  his  employment  had 
not  yet  arrived.22  So  he  determined  to  open  the  fight 
against  Napoleon  in  a  different  way  and  upon  his  own  re- 
sponsibility ;  with  Cobenzl  he  might  settle  later  on,  when  a 
fitting  opportunity  should  offer  itself. 

Before  taking  up  the  details  of  this  struggle,  it  may  be 
best  to  get  at  an  understanding  of  its  general  character. 

The  fact  that  Gentz  hated  Napoleon  from  1803  on  is 
not  to  be  explained  by  a  dependence  on  his  part  upon  the 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  128,  147  f. 

"Ibid.,  II,  128. 

*Ibid.,  II,  144. 

"Aus  der  alien  Registratur  der  Staatskanslei,  ed.  by  Klinkowstrom,  7. 


92  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [578 

judgment  of  public  opinion,  for  at  this  time  Napoleon  was 
by  no  means  generally  unpopular.  The  tremendous  hatred 
which  Europe  later  conceived  for  him  accumulated  but 
gradually;  in  England  since  1803,  in  Austria  since  1805, 
in  Prussia  practically  since  1806  and  in  Spain  since  1808. 
During  the  first  years  of  the  Consulate,  Napoleon  was  on 
the  whole  respected  and  admired ;  at  any  rate  his  rule  was 
hailed  with  satisfaction.  In  the  short  interim  between  the 
peace  of  Amiens  and  the  renewal  of  hostilities  with  Eng- 
land, he  even  enjoyed  the  distinction  of  being  an  idol  of 
English  society ;  whoever  in  those  days  might  take  a  pleas- 
ure trip  to  Paris  wanted  to  see  the  First  Consul.  On  the 
occasion  of  his  journey  to  the  Rhine  country  in  1804,  the 
emperor  was  received  with  unfeigned  admiration,  and  in 
the  states  of  the  later  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  this  feel- 
ing persisted  even  much  longer.  In  Prussia,  public  opinion 
was  up  to  1805  not  only  in  sympathy  with  the  neutrality 
policy  of  the  government,  but  even  favorably  disposed 
towards  France  and  towards  the  emperor  himself;  accord- 
ing to  Johannes  von  Mtiller,  it  did  not  turn  decidedly 
against  the  latter  until  the  middle  of  October,  1805.23 
Napoleon  had,  up  to  this  time,  in  a  certain  sense  wooed 
Prussia  and  was,  even  after  1805,  somewhat  underrated 
by  the  Prussian  generals. 

This  hatred  must,  therefore,  he  explained  differently. 
Perhaps,  then,  by  a  tendency  in  Gentz  towards  opposition 
at  any  cost,  or  by  the  unrest  which  the  policy  of  Napoleon 
aroused  in  him?  It  is  not  improbable  that  both  of  these 
factors,  to  a  certain  degree,  did  influence  Gentz.  To  fight — 
only  with  the  pen  and  with  words,  but  by  no  means  with 
the  sword — was  indeed  a  kind  of  necessity  for  him;  he  felt 
it  as  a  pleasant  stimulant,  provided  the  excitement  was  not 
too  great,  and  thought,  after  Leipzig  that,  with  the  triumph 
of  the  good  cause,  life  had  become  somewhat  tedious.24 
Likewise  there  can  be  no  question  that  for  him  the  calm 
enjoyment  of  life  was  much  disturbed  by  the  continual  war- 

"Schlesier,   IV,   119. 
"Ibid,  I.  169. 


579]  GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  THE  NEW  STRUGGLE  93 

fare  and  its  consequences ;  he  had  twice  to  flee  from  Vienna, 
he  wandered  about  the  world  from  the  end  of  1805  to  the 
spring  of  1809  and  could,  thanks  to  his  anti-Napoleonic 
tendencies,  get  no  official  recognition  until  the  latter  year. 
On  one  occasion  he  himself  speaks,  half  in  jest,  half 
seriously,  on  this  latter  point.  It  was  in  the  summer  of 
1811.  He  would  have  liked  very  much  to  go  to  Teplitz  in 
order  to  take  care  of  his  body,  and  incidentally  to  renew  the 
charming  acquaintances  which  he  had  made  there  in  the 
preceding  year;  unfortunately,  however,  he  has  to  remain 
in  Vienna.  With  4-5000  florins,  so  he  estimates  to  his 
friend  Rahel,  he  could  have  managed  to  stay  there  "a  few 
weeks'' ;  but  he  does  not  happen  to  have  this  sum  just  then. 
"God,"  he  exclaims,  "and  his  destro3'ing  angel,  Bonaparte, 
are  upon  us  ...  Not  to  be  able  to  talk  with  you  for  a 
few  days  and  not  to  see  the  face  of  the  Princess  Solms, 
those  are  privations  in  return  from  which  I  could  wish  the 
founder  of  the  continental  system  a  hell  of  his  own."25 
Similar  feelings  may  have  been  entertained  by  Gentz 
also  at  other  times.  However,  it  would  show  a  slight  un- 
derstanding of  his  character  to  assume  that  he  allowed  him- 
self to  be  seriously  influenced  by  such  motives;  they  can, 
at  all  events,  not  have  induced  him  to  take  up  the  fight, 
inasmuch  as  they  arose  only  during  it. 

The  real  cause  of  Gentz's  antagonism  to  Napoleon  lay 
far  deeper:  it  lay,  in  the  last  analysis,  in  the  entire  trend 
of  his  political  thinking.  Napoleon  was  to  him,  from  1803 
on,  but  the  heir  of  the  Revolution,20  and  the  Revolution  he 
thoroughly  abhorred.  It  is  true,  he  thought  to  distinguish 
differences  between  the  internal  policies  of  the  Revo- 
lution and  of  Napoleon,  but  these  did  not,  in  his  eyes  sig- 
nify any  advance;  in  1805,  for  instance,  he  suggests  that 
quiet  was  then  reigning  in  France,  but  this  quiet  was,  after 
all,  nothing  but  the  silence  of  general  servitude  and  an  un- 
limited power  of  government.27  In  the  sphere  of  interna- 

"Ibid.,  I,  121  f. 

*Ment.  et  left,  intd.,  4  ff.,  56.    Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  251. 

"Mem.  et  lett.  intd.,  87. 


94  FRIEDEICH  GENTZ  [580 

tional  politics,  Gentz  feared  even  worse  from  Napoleon  than 
what  the  Revolution  had  brought.  As  early  as  the  summer 
of  1803,  he  considered  the  former  the  storm-cloud  which 
hung  threateningly  over  Europe,  the  common  danger  of 
the  Continent,  from  which  no  state  felt  safe  any  longer.28 
At  any  moment,  the  new  Caesar  might  set  his  legions  in 
motion  and  inflict  a  blow  in  which  more  than  a  third  of  the 
Continent  would  participate ;  who  could  think  of  resisting 
such  a  power?  The  fine  old  balance  of  power  was,  as  it 
seemed,  definitely  destroyed.  Worse  things,  it  is  true,  were 
yet  to  come,  and  then  it  was  Gentz's  controlling  idea  to  pre- 
vent, at  any  cost,  the  erection  of  a  universal  French  mon- 
archy in  Europe. 

But  how  was  this  to  be  prevented?  Gentz  answers :  by 
coalitions.  Any  other  means  he  does  not  know.  He  espe- 
cially favors  a  coalition  between  Austria  and  Prussia,  and 
to  bring  this  alliance  about  was  the  real  goal  of  his  fiery 
activity  during  the  years  1803-1809.29  At  first,  he  does  not 
yet  think  seriously  of  war ;  he  simply  intends  to  intimidate 
Napoleon  through  this  coalition  or  others,  and  even  in 
October,  1805,  he  is  convinced  that  France  will  yield  before 
an  Austro-Prussian  demonstration.  That  he  could  en- 
tertain such  illusions  is  in  reality  not  so  strange  as  it  may 
at  first  seem.  Miscalculations  of  this  kind  are  being  made 
again  and  again;  in  1778  and  in  1785,  Joseph  II  operated 
in  the  same  way  against  Frederick  the  Great  and  lost  the 
game.  Only  later,  from  about  1806  on,  Gentz  also  saw 
in  coalitions  an  effective  instrument  of  war. 

Perhaps  the  best  insight  into  the  motives  and  aims  of 
Gentz's  struggle  against  Napoleon  may  be  obtained  from 
the  following  passage  in  a  letter  of  December,  1804 :  "As 
regards  public  affairs,"  Gentz  writes,  "but  one  idea  now 
occupies  my  attention.  There  must  be  effected  a  union 
between  Austria  and  Prussia ;  and  I  claim  it  will  come.  For 
two  months  I  have  been  working  for  this  day  and  night,  in 

"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  114.    Cf.  p.  128. 

**Fournier,  Gentz  und  Cobensl,  251  ff.     Schlesier,  IV,  16,  86,  ff.,  IOO, 
117.    Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  251.  259. 


581]  GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  THE  NEW  STRUGGLE  95 

public  and  in  private,  with  pen  and  tongue.  You  shall  soon 
get  to  see  something  on  that  subject.  If  I  can  say  to  my- 
self that  I  have  contributed  something  to  this  measure,  then 
I  shall  consider  my  goal  as  attained  and  my  life  as  well- 
nigh  closed.  To  resist  the  French  Revolution  was  my  first 
and  holiest  purpose :  it  has  been  victorious,  has  been  com- 
pleted— even  crowned ;  that  is  finished.*  To  prevent  the  fall 
of  Europe's  independence  in  consequence  of  that  awful 
revolution — is  my  present  and,  of  course,  my  last  purpose. 
The  union  between  Austria  and  Prussia,  accompanied  by  a 
general  consolidation  of  all  the  remaining  forces  of  Ger- 
many— this  highest  German  and  at  the  same  time  European 
project — is  the  only  means  to  attain  that  end;  it  is,  how- 
ever, also  a  sufficient,  a  complete  and  a  thorough  one.  If 
Germany  shall  become  united  .  .  .  then  we  can  say 
farewell  to  Russia  (with  which  for  a  thousand  good  reasons 
I  now  will  have  nothing  more  to  do) ,  can  see  England  fight- 
ing its  glorious  fight  on  a  sure  and  grand  basis,  and  can 
laugh  at  all  the  threats  of  France.  To  subdue  haughty, 
terrible,  mad,  impious,  detestable  and  despicable  France  by 
a  measure,  .  .  .  through  which  alone  Germany  .  .  . 
can  again  become  Germany,  and  to  find  the  means  for  our 
salvation  in  the  very  thing  which  can  at  the  same  time  give 
us  the  foundation  for  our  future  national  greatness — what 
German  may  resist  so  ravishing  and  charming  a  prospect 
as  this!"30 

Gentz's  attitude  towards  Russia  was,  almost  from  the 
beginning,  one  of  mingled  feelings.31  To  him,  Russia  was 
the  colossus  of  the  North,  the  natural  rival  of  Austria  in 
the  East  and  her  possible  friend  in  the  West,  a  backward 
but  eventually  dangerous  power  which  needed  only  to  ex- 
tend her  hand  toward  France  to  share  with  her  the  mas- 
tery of  the  Continent  and  throttle  Austria.  An  alliance 
with  such  a  power  he  regarded,  in  general,  as  a  necessity  for 
Austria,  at  least  until  about  1809.  That  both  powers,  if 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  251. 

"Fournier,  Gents  und  Cobensl,  256  f.,  260  ff.  Schlesier,  IV,  88  f.,  103, 
157.    Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  196  f.,  208  f.,  251,  259,  262.  Cf.  p.  121. 


96  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [582 

allied,  would  be  able  to  offer  successful  resistance  to 
Napoleon  he  did  not  really  believe,  at  least  not  after  Sep- 
tember, 1804 ;  for  this,  he  considered  the  assistance  of  Prus- 
sia as  indispensable.  But  the  alliance  would,  at  any  rate, 
mean  a  positive  strengthening  of  Austria's  power,  and  then 
— that  he  emphasizes  in  1804  and  again  in  1814 — a  possible 
union  of  Russia  and  France  had  by  all  means  to  be  pre- 
vented. His  estimate  of  the  military  value  of  the  Rus- 
sians was,  as  regarded  a  campaign  in  the  West,  not  a  high 
one ;  and  scarcely  higher  was  his  opinion  of  their  diplomatic 
ability.  "We  know  the  Russian  geniuses,"  he  writes  in 
June,  1804 :  all  of  the  average  type,  or  beneath  it,  generals 
as  well  as  ministers,  with  the  exception  of  one  man,  who 
is  now,  however,  out  of  office.  At  other  times,  indeed,  im- 
mediately before  Austerlitz,  for  example,  he  values  the 
Russians  more  highly.  What  especially  aroused  him  was 
Russia's  attitude  towards  Germany.  Already  the  Rus- 
sian interference  in  German  affairs  during  1801-1803  had 
displeased  him  greatly;  he  became  highly  indignant, 
however,  at  the  conceit  which  the  Russian  generals,  in 
the  campaign  of  1805,  displayed  toward  the  Austrians. 
After  Leipzig,  when  the  subjugation  of  Napoleon  seemed 
accomplished,  he  regarded  the  Russian  colossus  hardly  as 
anything  less  than  as  the  rival  of  today  and  the  enemy  of 
tomorrow.  As  if  to  heap  coals  of  fire  upon  his  head, 
Emperor  Alexander,  who  apparently  knew  little  of  these 
hostile  feelings  of  Gentz,  bestowed  upon  him,  at  the  end  of 
1813,  the  order  of  St.  Anne,  calling  him  at  the  same  time  in 
an  autograph,  "the  champion  of  law,  the  defender  of  the 
true  principles  of  political  wisdom  and  the  art  of  govern- 
ment." 

Gentz  kept  up  relations  with  England  until  the  time  of 
Napoleon's  fall,  though  not  always  with  the  same  degree  of 
intimacy.32  In  the  first  years  of  his  residence  at  Vienna  he 
acted,  as  we  know,  in  the  capacity  of  an  English  agent, 
being  reimbursed  for  his  services  by  occasional  remittances. 
After  1809,  however,  he  ceased  to  act  as  such  in  any  real 

"Tagebiicher,  I,  40,  52  f.,  214,  255  f. 


583]  GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  THE  NEW  STRUGGLE  97 

sense  of  the  word,  and  after  1811,  the  flow  of  English 
guineas  also  seems  to  have  stopped;  his  value  as  an  agent 
depended  naturally  upon  his  connections  and  his  knowledge 
of  diplomatic  secrets,  and  as  early  as  1805  he  believed  to 
have  discovered  that  in  this  regard  lie  was  now  less  highly 
thought  of  in  London  than  formerly.  But  in  whatever  way 
Gentz's  personal  wire  to  London  might  work,  whatever  he 
might  think  of  English  ministries  and  English  policies,  to 
England  itself  he  remained  faithfully  attached  during  all 
these  j'ears.33  The  policy  of  the  Addington  ministry  dis- 
turbed him  for  a  moment,  but  after  that  he  no  longer 
doubted  that  Britain  would  stand  to  the  end  in  the  service 
of  the  good  cause.  At  times  it  would  even  seem  as  though 
the  fate  of  England  lay  closer  to  his  heart  than  that  of 
Austria  or  Prussia ;  when  Napoleon  was  thinking  of  invad- 
ing the  British  Isles,  he  fairly  "trembled,"  as  he  says  him- 
self, for  their  future.  And  this  devotion  lasted,  as  we  know, 
even  beyond  the  days  of  Napoleon;  it  was  so  strong  that 
Gentz  never  entertained  the  idea  that  after  the  elimination 
of  the  French  supremacy,  the  English  control  of  the  seas 
would  necessarily  be  only  the  more  uncontested. 

The  methods  which  Gentz  himself  used  to  reach  his 
political  aims  were  practically  the  old  ones  of  Berlin: 
memorials,  letters,  verbal  conversations  and  publications. 
The  lines  of  division  may  here  sometimes  be  hard  to  de- 
termine; in  general,  however,  they  are  distinguishable,  and 
if  we  draw  these  lines,  we  find  in  the  years  from  1803  until 
1815  somewhat  less  than  thirty  memorials  from  Gentz's 
pen :  five  in  1803,  three  in  1804,  three  in  1805,  two  in  1806, 
two  in  1807,  one  in  1808,  one  in  1808-1809,  two  in  1810,  one 
in  1813,  three  in  1814  and  five  in  1815.  the  two  war-mani- 
festos, the  treatises  on  the  Austrian  finances,  and 
those  on  maritime  law  are  not  included  in  this  list. 
About  half  of  these  memorials  were  directed  to  Viennese 
personages,  namely  three  to  Cobenzl,  one  to  Archduke 
John,  two  to  Stadion  and  seven  to  Metternich ;  five  were  in- 

Tournier,  Gentz  und  Cobenzl,  264  ff.     Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II, 
130,  144,  161,  171  f.,  251. 


98  FBIEDRICH  GENTZ  [584 

tended  for  London,  one  for  Berlin,  and  one  for  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  correspondence  carried  on  by  Gentz  during  this 
period  was  of  unusual  extent.  He  himself  gives  the  number 
of  his  "more  important"  letters  written  betwen  1803  and 
1807  as  over  two  thousand,  and  mentions  among  them  let- 
ters to  the  emperors  of  Germany  and  of  Russia,  the  king 
of  Sweden,  the  queen  of  Prussia,  Archduke  John,  the  duke 
of  Weimar,  Prince  Louis  Ferdinand  of  Prussia,  the  later 
Louis  XVIII  of  France,  the  duke  of  Orleans  and  the  Prince 
of  Wales;  also  letters  to  many  English  statesmen,  to  the 
Prussians  Hardenberg,  Haugwitz  and  Boyen,  to  the  Rus- 
sian Panin,  to  the  Swedes  Armfeldt  and  Brinckmann,  and 
lastly  to  Johannes  von  Mfiller,  Rahel,  Goethe  and  Schil- 
ler.34 A  considerable  number  of  these  letters,  however, 
were  of  no  political  import.  Of  those  belonging  to  the  fol- 
lowing years,  letters  to  Baron  Stein,  Nesselrode,  and 
Pozzo  di  Borgo,  to  a  number  of  Austrian  generals,  to 
Madame  de  Stae'l  and  Friedrich  Schlegel  deserve  to  be  men- 
tioned.35 Gentz  made,  however,  now  no  longer  so  strong 
attempts  to  influence  public  opinion  as  he  had  done  form- 
erly :  the  last  of  his  publications — if  we  except  the  two  war- 
manifestos — fall  into  the  years  1806  and  1807,  the  most 
important  of  which  were  the  Fragmente.  In  a  certain 
sense,  it  is  true,  Gentz  addressed  himself  to  larger  circles 
also  in  his  occasional  pamphlets  on  the  financial  condition 
of  Austria,  and  indirectly  through  the  channels  of  the  Oster- 
reichischer  Beobachter;  the  last  named  paper  stood,  at 
times,  under  his  direct  surveillance.  Nevertheless,  in  gen- 
eral he  remained  silent  in  this  regard  after  1807,  being  con- 
vinced that  politics  were  made  by  the  cabinets,  and  that 
the  general  public  was  but  a  sluggish,  spiritless,  and  rather 
stupid  mass,  not  to  be  influenced  by  books.36  Perhaps,  he 
was,  in  addition,  officially  warned  after  the  conclusion  of 
peace  in  1809  against  open  attacks  on  Napoleon.37  To 

"Schlesier,  V,  29  f. 

"Ibid.,  V,  30. 

"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  147 ;  I,  280. 

"Ibid.,  I,  341. 


585]  GENEIiAL  FEATURES  OF  THE  NEW  STUGGLE  99 

arouse  the  high  society  in  Vienna  and  elsewhere,  Gentz 
endeavored  with  unwearying  zeal,  at  least  until  1809,  be- 
lieving, as  he  writes  to  Johannes  von  Miiller  in  1804,  that  he 
was  helping  thereby  the  good  cause  not  a  little.38 

To  these  old  methods  there  was  added,  however,  a  new 
one :  political  intriguing,  the  overthrow  of  ministries,  or  at 
least  attempts  in  this  direction.  It  is  true,  Gentz  employed 
this  new  method  almost  exclusively  against  that  ministry 
which  he  found  in  power  at  Vienna  upon  his  arrival  there, 
and  within  it  against  Cobenzl  in  particular.39 

What  was  to  follow  when  the  struggle  against 
Napoleon  should  have  been  ended  successfully,  may  be  de- 
rived from  the  preceding  chapter  on  Gentz's  political 
theories,  from  the  citation  just  made,  from  the  letter 
to  Metternich  of  November,  1813,  and,  finally,  from  the 
letters  to  Johannes  von  Mtiller.40  Gentz  demands — and 
these  are  the  ultimate  ends  towards  which  he  is  working — 
a  return  to  the  balance  of  power;  the  formation  of  a  new 
federative  system  in  Europe  which  would  offer  a  guarantee 
of  independence  to  the  individual  states;  a  territorial  re- 
duction of  France;  the  liberation  of  Germany  from  every 
foreign  tutelage;  a  numerical  reduction  of  the  German 
states  and  the  consolidation  of  those  remaining  into  a  fed- 
eration in  which  Austria  and  Prussia  should  have  the 
leadership,  and  Austria  again  should  enjoy  a  certain  pre- 
ponderance over  Prussia  as  the  primus  inter  pares: 
finally,  the  suppression  of  all  revolutionary  tendencies  by 
the  European  areopagus,  the  maintenance  of  the  founda- 
tions of  state  and  society,  and  a  measured  progress  in  minor 
points. 

If  we  turn  to  Gentz's  judgment  of  the  man  Napoleon, 
we  must  above  all  keep  in  mind  that  this  judgment  was  con- 
siderably influenced  by  the  former's  general  relations  to 
the  latter.  Any  subtle  distinction  between  the  politician 
and  the  man,  Gentz  was  never  prone  to  draw,  although 

"Schlesier,  IV,  15. 

"Cf.  p. 

"Schlesier,  IV,  19,  21,  48,  157,  167,  179.    Cf.  p.  147  f. 


100  PRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [586 

claiming  himself  to  have  drawn  it  in  his  dealings  with 
Cobenzl;41  besides,  in  the  present  case,  he  materially 
changed  his  views  as  soon  as  the  enemy  had  become  harm- 
less. In  general,  Napoleon  was  in  his  eyes  an  undoubtedly 
extraordinary  figure  who  combined  every  conceivable  wick- 
edness with  unusual  ability.  The  epithets  which  Gentz  ap- 
plies to  this  man  between  1803  and  1806  are  as  long  as  they 
are  dreadful.  He  calls  him  immensely  ambitious,  haughty, 
passionate,  extremely  provoking,  a  "faithless,  vain,  petty 
usurper,  by  the  infamy  of  contemporaries  raised  first  to 
greatness,  then  to  a  frenzy  of  greatness,  an  insolent,  im- 
pious and  villainous  tyrant,"  a  "stage  monarch,"  a  "blood- 
reeking  beast,"  and  "idol,"  "Baal,"  "Belzebub,"  and  so- 
on.42 He  is  especially  aroused  by  Napoleon's  bold  assump- 
tion of  the  dignity  of  emperor.43  How  could  a  man  coming 
from  a  "branded"  family,  a  "parvenu,"  like  him,  think  of 
taking  to  himself  such  a  hallowed  title!  How  could  the 
princes  of  Europe  submit  to  this  "boundless  infamy,"  how 
could  God  in  heaven  suffer  it,  even  with  his  incomprehensi- 
ble patience!  It  was  too  much;  "can  you  find  words,"  he 
asks  Brinckmann,  "to  express  this  latest  of  all  pieces  of  vil- 
lainy?" More  moderate  in  form,  more  detailed  and  interest- 
ing, are  Gentz's  characterizations  of  Napoleon  in  his  letters 
to  Metternich  of  1813  and  1814.44  In  August,  1813,  he  writes 
in  his  plastic  style  concerning  the  war :  "It  is  the  struggle 
with  a  raging  monster,  which  before  it  falls,  lays  waste  the 
earth  about  it,  but  it  is  none  the  less  its  death-struggle,  and 
it  can  not  escape  its  fate."  Then  in  November,  1813 :  "The 
boldest  hazard  of  my  life,  my  obstinate  assertion  of  the  per- 
sonal mediocrity  of  the  ex-hero  of  our  time  is  now  crowned 
with  a  success  that  I  myself  never  looked  for.  That  he 
was  as  I  said,  God  indeed  revealed  to  me,  and  I Should  have 

uBriefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  249. 

°Mem.  et  lett.  ined.,  8,  9,  n,  45,  66.  Schlesier,  IV,  54,  86,  118.  Brief e 
v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  I,  291 ;  II,  135,  144,  194. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a,  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  194,  212. 

"Metternich-Klinkowstrom,  Osterreichs  Theilnahme  an  den  Befrei- 
ungskriegen,  50  f.,  97  f.,  291. 


587]  GENERAL  FEATURES  OF  THE  NEW  STRUGGLE  101 

died  with  that  conviction,  even  though  he  had  conquered 
Asia.  But  that  the  whole  world  should  so  soon  see  it,  com- 
prehend and  acknowledge  it,  I  never  promised  myself.  His 
soul  was  long  ago  comprehensible  enough  to  me,  his  intelli- 
gence much  later,  and  then  only  with  great  restriction ;  but 
his  character  still  defies  me.  That  there  is  a  tremendous 
difference  between  an  iron  character  and  a  great  one  did 
not  commend  itself  to  me  either.  At  last  everything  is  be- 
coming clear."  Finally,  in  March,  1814:  "This  man  has 
his  whole  life  long  done  nothing  but  play  a  great  military 
play  with  the  French,  with  all  Europe,  with  himself  and 
his  own  fate.  He  remained  the  same  at  the  summit  of  for- 
tune and  on  the  verge  of  destruction.  His  language  is  not 
that  of  a  Nero,  nor  yet  that  of  a  Caesar.  The  strange  phe- 
nomenon which  we  call  Bonaparte  can  be  measured  only 
by  its  own  standard.  The  consequence  of  all  the  great  mis- 
takes, and  therefore  of  all  the  great  suffering  of  our  time, 
was  that  Napoleon  was  ever  considered  either  a  demigod  or 
a  monster,  or  perhaps  as  both  in  one." 

The  last  of  these  quotations  sounds  already  less  hostile, 
and  a  year  later,  by  the  end  of  July,  1815,  Gentz  had 
reached  a  complete  change  in  his  judgment.  If  he  now  ex- 
presses himself  about  Napoleon  almost  sympathetically, 
and  certainly  with  unfeigned  emotion,  it  was  not  only  be- 
cause he  had  just  then  received  from  Adam  Miiller  a  dram- 
atic and  inspiring  description  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo 
which  did  justice  to  the  Emperor:45  there  were  other  mo- 
tives just  as  strong.  The  struggle  was  now  over  and  the  ca- 
reer of  the  opponent  definitely  closed ;  thus  Gentz  was  able 
to  view  him  in  a  more  objective  and  historic  way,  and  by 
the  tribute  that  lie  now  pays  to  Napoleon  he  proved  that  he 
united,  after  all,  with  his  Phseacian  inclinations  a  deeply 
rooted  appreciation  of  heroism.  In  this  tribute  he  first 
makes  acknowledgment  of  Napoleon's  attitude  on  the 
ftcMeroplion,  and  then  goes  on  to  say :  "It  is  certain  that 
his  character  never  changed  for  an  instant,  and  that  he  has 
borne  this  last  catastrophe  with  unaltered  equanimity.  The 

"Ibid.,  641  ff.    Gentz  describes  the  battle  himself. 


102  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [588 

fear  of  death  can  never  have  befallen  a  man  who  in  the  most 
fearful  danger  ever  showed  an  iron  courage,  and  even  on 
the  day  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo  so  exposed  his  person  that 
no  English  or  Prussian  corps  could  be  named  which  has  not 
seen  him  at  least  twenty  times  on  that  day  in  the  heaviest 
fire  and  turmoil.  If  he  preferred  imprisonment  to  death, 
he  made  his  choice  with  forethought;  and  it  can  be  said 
that  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  career  he  has 
thrown  his  contemporaries  one  after  another,  now  into 
astonishment  and  now  into  rage,  that  he  has  outwitted 
them,  despised,  scorned  and  bluffed  them ;  a  riddle  without 
an  answer,  a  phenomenon  without  a  parallel,  an  inexhaus- 
tible subject  for  conjecture,  investigation  and  the  despair  of 
historians  who  in  the  future  will  desire  to  give  a  faithful 
picture  of  him  to  the  posterity  which  is  to  judge  him."46 

After  this  general  orientation,  we  take  up  the  thread 
of  our  narrative  once  more. 

Gentz  has,  as  we  know,  established  himself  in  Vienna 
and  opened  his  private  warfare  against  Napoleon.  For 
some  time,  no  important  happenings  are  to  be  noted  in  his 
life;  but  there  occurred  a  considerable  number  of  minor 
events,  and  to  these — covering  the  period  from  the  spring  of 
1803  to  the  summer  of  1805 — we  have  now  to  turn  our  at- 
tention. 

Gentz  is  of  course  very  busy  during  this  time,  for  when 
not  busy  he  becomes  bored.  He  meets  many  prominent  per- 
sonages, such  as  Fassbender,  Stadion,  Metternich,  Mack, 
Paget,  Panin,  Easunowsky,  Pozzo  di  Borgo  and  Armfeldt ; 
with  Cobenzl  he  has  but  little  to  do.  Soon  he  rents  a  coun- 
try house  in  Hietzing,  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Vienna,  and 
there  he  gives  tea-parties,  or  he  makes  short  expeditions  into 
the  mountains.  Now  and  then  he  might  also  permit  him- 
self the  pleasure  of  a  love  adventure ;  it  goes  without  saying 
that  he  continues  to  frequent  the  drawing-rooms  of  the 
fashionable  world.  In  general  he  feels  in  good  spirits.47 
During  the  second  half  of  1804,  he  begins,  it  is  true,  to  be 

"Ibid .,  686. 
"Tagebiicher,  I,  30,  33. 


589]  FIRST  ACTIVITY  AT  VIENNA  103 

discontented  with  conditions  in  Vienna;48  at  times  a  feel- 
ing of  disgust  with  the  whole  world  comes  over  him,  and 
once  when  in  such  a  mood  he  tells  Brinckmann  that  he  is 
ready  to  fight  to  the  end,  but  that  if  it  comes  to  the  worst, 
he  will  bury  himself  in  solitude  of  the  mountains.49  Still, 
though  he  suffers  all  these  moments  of  depression,  Gentz 
continues  to  maintain  his  old  self-reliance.  In  October, 
1804,  he  writes  to  Brinckmann:  "I  can  assure  you  with- 
out boasting  that  I  have  not  gone  astray  for  many  a  day  in 
a  single  political  calculation."50  Likewise  in  December, 
1804 :  "I  am  highly  esteemed  by  all  parties  and  people  in 
Vienna,  am  loved  by  many  feared  by  some.  .  .  .  The 
archdukes  are  not  more  firmly  established,  not  less  exposed 
to  any  unpleasantness  of  even  to  a  consilio  abeundi  than 
I."51  Once  he  makes  the  laudable  attempt  to  pay  off,  in  part, 
his  debts;  unfortunately,  the  money  is  embezzled.52  How 
he  maintained  financially  his  very  luxurious  mode  of  life, 
we  do  not  know  in  detail ;  part  of  the  money  came,  at  any 
rate,  from  the  coffers  of  the  foreign  office  at  London. 

Gentz's  correspondence  was  in  this  period,  until  the 
beginning  of  1806,  a  very  extensive  one,  especially  lively 
with  Brinckmann,  with  Johannes  von  Mtiller  and,  first  of 
all,  with  London.53  Five  memorials  fall  in  the  year  of 
1803:  one  was  addressed  to  the  duke  of  Weimar  and  en- 
trusted to  Johannes  von  Miiller  for  delivery,  one  dealt  with 
the  French  financial  administration,  two  with  the  prob- 
ability of  a  continental  war  in  event  of  hostilities  between 
France  and  England,  and  one  with  England's  problems  in 
the  war  which  has  just  broken  out.54  The  exact  contents 
of  these  memorials  are  but  little  known,  for  so  far  they  have 
not  been  found,  and  Gentz  himself  speaks  of  them  only  in 

"Ibid.,  I,  37. 

"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  225. 
"Ibid.,  II,  231. 
"Ibid.,  II,  248. 
"Tagebucher,  I,  29  f. 
**Tagebucher,  I,  27. 

"Schmidt-Weissenfels,  Friedrich  Gentz,  I,  174,  f.  Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v. 
Gents.    II,  130,  159  f. 


104  KRIBDRICH  GEXTZ  [590 

passing.  To  the  duke  of  Weimar,  lie  explains  the  ex 
pediency  of  working  once  more  toward  a  union  of  the  Ger- 
man princes,  which  would  now,  however,  have  to  be  directed 
against  France  and  include  Austria  as  well  as  Prussia.  In 
the  memoir  on  England's  duties — it  was  meant  for  London, 
but  did  not  actually  go  there,  though  it  came  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  king  of  Sweden55 — he  gives  the  advice  to  start  a 
revolt  within  the  cabinets  in  the  interest  of  the 
European  balance  of  power,  or  to  conquer  all  possessions  of 
the  non-European  powers  outside  of  Europe,  especially 
those  of  Spain  in  America.50  This  last  idea  Gentz  touches 
upon  again  in  1806  ;57  the  problem  of  the  balance  of  power 
hypnotized  him  apparently  to  the  extent  that  he  was  ready 
to  sanction  almost  anything  that  promised  help.  Further 
memorials  appeared  in  the  years  1804  and  1805 ;  these,  how- 
ever, will  be  analyzed  later.58 

Outside  of  Austria,  Gentz  kept  up  connections  with 
leading  personages  on  the  Thames,  Spree  and  Neva. 
Whether  he  ever  seriously  shared  in  the  intrigues  against 
the  Russian  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  may  be  left  unde- 
cided ;  a  change  in  St.  Petersburg  would,  however,  undoubt- 
edly have  pleased  him.59  At  Berlin  he  possessed  in  Johannes 
von  Mtiller  and,  in  a  certain  sense,  also  in  Brinckmann, 
active  fellow-champions  of  his  ideas;  the  Prussian  war- 
party,  too,  was  working  in  harmony  with  his  aims,  and  at 
its  head  stood  that  Prince  Louis  Ferdinand  with  whom  he 
had  been  so  well  acquainted  since  the  end  of  his  Berlin 
period.  Especially  lively  were  Gentz's  relations  with  Lon- 
don. Stacks  of  letters  and  memorials  were  sent  thither 
through  various  channels,  and  at  the  same  time  Gentz  en- 
joyed confidential  relations  with  Paget,  the  English  repre- 
sentative at  Vienna.  What  information  he  gave  the  British 
statesmen,  and  what  measures  he  advised,  we  know  only 
in  part.  As  long  as  Addington  was  in  power,  his  main  con- 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  159  f. 

"Ibid.,  II,  162. 

"A us  dem  Nachlasse,  II,  10  f. 

"Cf.  p.  112  ff. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents.  II,  231.    Preuss.  Jahrb.,  CX,  476. 


591]  OPPOSITION  TO  COBBNZL  105 

cern  was  a  fear  that  England  might  give  in ;  and  he  there- 
fore sends  repeated  warnings  to  hold  out.  Malta,  above 
everything  else,  should  not  be  given  up  at  any  price.60  He 
is  happy  at  the  assumption  of  government  by  Pitt  in  May, 

1804,  and  immediately  his  notes,  letters,  and  memorials 
begin  to  pour  in.    First  he  presents  to  the  new  premier  his 
memoir    against    a    recognition    of    Napoleon's    imperial 
title;61  at  the  same  time  or  a  little  later  he  must,  as  we 
learn  from  a  letter  to  Johannes  von  Mtiller  of  November, 

1805,  have  warned  Pitt  not  to  overestimate  Russia  and  to 
remember  that  a  war  against  Napoleon  at  the  side  of  the 
ministry  Cobenzl  and  without  the  voluntary  aid  of  Prussia 
would  be  hopeless.62    Almost  identical  warnings  were  sent 
by  Paget,  but  Pitt  went  his  own  way.63    In  November,  1804, 
Gentz  presented  another  memorial,  this  time  to  the  Earl  of 
Harrowby,  Pitt's  secretary  of  foreign  affairs,  in  which  he 
recommended  an  entente  between  Prussia  and  Austria.64 

If  we  turn  to  Gentz's  activity  as  regards  Austria  itself, 
immediately  and  above  all  we  hit  upon  his  relations  to  his 
immediate  superior.  We  know  that  Cobenzl  at  first  simply 
intended  to  attach  Gentz  to  Austria,  and  to  make  serious 
use  of  his  abilities  only  later.  This  time  had  not  yet  come 
by  the  end  of  1803,  and  in  fact  never  came ;  for  until  1809 
Gentz  was  never  really  employed.  That  he  must  have  felt 
this  neglect  bitterly  is  self-evident,  and  a  part  of  his  hos- 
tility against  Cobenzl  undoubtedly  went  back  to  this  fact. 
Far  more  important,  however,  was  that  he  considered 
the  latter  as  being  perhaps  the  chief  obstacle  to  a  successful 
fight  against  Napoleon,  and  how  this  came  about  will  now 
have  to  be  considered. 

When  Gentz  entered  the  Austrian  service,  the  govern- 
ment lay  in  the  hands  of  a  ministry  composed  of  three  de- 
partments :  the  departments  of  foreign  affairs,  the  interior 

60 Brief 'e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  126. 
"Preuss.  Jahrb.,  CX,  475. 
"Schlesier,  IV,  159  f. 
"Preuss.  Jahrb.,  CX,  473,  476. 
"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  Gents,  II,  245. 


106  FBIEDRICH  GENTZ  [592 

and  war.  At  the  head  of  the  foreign  office  stood  Counts 
Colleredo  and  Cobenzl,  the  former  as  its  nominal,  the 
later  as  its  real  head ;  one  of  the  counsellors  working  under 
them  was  Collenbach.  The  head  of  the  department  of  the 
interior  was  Count  Kollowrat,  who  had  also  supervision 
over  the  financial  administration.  Finally,  the  head  of  the 
war  department  was  Archduke  Charles,  a  brother  of 
Emperor  Francis  and  the  victor  of  1796;  next  to  him  in 
position  and  influence  were  General  Duka  and  Counsellor 
Fassbender.  The  competence  of  these  departments  seems 
to  have  been  disputed,  and  a  real  cooperation  between  them 
never  existed;  two  were  even  really  hostile  to  one  another. 
The  war  department,  including  Archduke  Charles,  con- 
sidered Austria  as  too  weak,  both  in  a  military  and  financial 
way,  to  carry  on  successful  war  with  Napoleon  even  with 
Kussia's  aid,  and  sought,  therefore,  friendly  relations  with 
France.  The  foreign  office,  on  the  other  hand,  though  also 
convinced  of  the  weakness  of  the  monarchy  and  not  prin- 
cipally in  favor  of  war,  did  not  consider  a  war  if  fought  in 
union  with  Kussia,  as  entirely  hopeless.  The  Emperor  sided 
at  first  chiefly  with  the  peace  party.  Since  the  peace  of 
Amiens,  the  real  opposition  to  Archduke  Charles  and  his 
group  was  formed  of  a  number  of  persons  of  high  rank  and 
social  standing  who  passed  under  the  name  of  the  "Anglo- 
maniacs"  ;  among  them  were  men  such  as  Panin,  Kasumow- 
skjr,  Paget,  Armfeldt,  and  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  the  ladies  of  the 
aristocracy,  French  emigrants  and  others.  The  program  of 
this  party  was  the  coalition  of  Europe  against  Napoleon. 

Cobenzl  had  been  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of  foreign 
affairs  in  October,  1800,  but  did  not  actually  enter  upon  his 
duties  until  September,  1801.  He  possessed  considerable 
diplomatic  experience,  being  especially  well  acquainted 
with  the  conditions  in  St.  Petersburg,  where  for  twenty 
years  he  had  been  the  representative  of  the  court  of  Vienna, 
and  the  advocate  of  an  Austro-Eussian  alliance.  As  the 
protege  and  pupil  of  Kaunitz,  as  a  former  confidant  of 
Joseph  II,  and  on  account  of  his  long  diplomatic  career, 
he  really  belonged  to  that  earlier  period  of  Austrian 


593]  OPPOSITION  TO  COBENZL  107 

diplomacy  in  which  the  antagonism  to  Prussia  had  formed 
the  leading  idea  of  the  Austrian  cabinet.  In  St.  Petersburg 
he  had  acted  as  an  enemy  of  Prussia,  and  it  was  now  to  be 
seen  whether  he  would  retain  his  old  policies  in  the  ne\v 
position.  Times  had  changed,  it  is  true;  the  European 
situation  was  now  of  a  different  character,  and  Cobenzl 
himself  did  not  enjoy  the  same  measure  of  respect  and  con- 
fidence from  the  now  reigning  emperor  as  from  his  prede- 
cessor. 

The  task  which  lay  before  the  new  chief  of  the  Austrian 
foreign  office  was  an  unusually  difficult  one.  On  three 
sides,  the  Austrian  monarchy  bordered  on  great  states :  in 
the  north  and  east  on  Russia,  in  the  east  on  Turkey,  in  the 
north  on  Prussia,  and  in  the  south,  in  Italy,  on  the  out- 
posts of  France ;  on  three  sides,  then,  it  was  exposed  to  dan- 
gerous attacks.  Prussia,  it  should  be  said,  was  in  an  equal- 
ly exposed  position ;  she  had,  however,  lived  in  peace  with 
France  since  1795  and  was  at  this  time  even  courted  by  this 
power.  Russia  was  geographically  protected  and  could 
easily  come  to  an  understanding  with  France.  Austria's 
position  could,  then,  not  be  termed  enviable :  all  around  her 
only  rivals  and  elements  of  possible  conflicts  and  nowhere 
a  friend  unless  it  were  across  the  sea.  To  the  west,  the 
danger  was  probably  as  great  as  ever ;  Napoleon,  it  is  true, 
still  held  back  and  besides,  his  death  or  a  new  revolution 
might  completely  change  the  situation  there.  Not  less 
serious  were  the  dangers  which  threatened  from  Russia  and 
Prussia.  Although  a  direct  attack  on  the  monarchy  itself 
did  not  seem  probable,  or  at  least  not  imminent  from  this 
side,  yet  attempts  at  new  territorial  annexations  would  in 
this  case,  if  once  completed,  in  all  probability  be  of  a  perma- 
nent character.  If  there  was  any  way  out  of  this  dangerous 
isolation,  it  had  to  be  sought  in  an  alliance  with  one  or  sev- 
eral of  the  great  powers,  and  then  the  choice  practically  lay 
between  France  and  the  late  Coalition.  The  natural  course 
was  to  seek  a  union  with  the  latter;  it  was  necessary,  how- 
ever, in  striving  for  it  to  proceed  with  the  utmost  caution. 
France  must  not  be  aroused,  at  least  not  before  everything 


108  FEIEDRICH  GENTZ  [594 

was  in  readiness  for  a  conflict;  for  if  it  came  to  war,  the 
first  blow  would  fall  upon  Austria.  In  order  to  meet  it  in 
time,  hostilities  must  not  begin  until  the  Russian  forces 
were  near  enough  and  the  very  important  question  of  Eng- 
lish subsidies  had  been  settled.  We  shall  see  that  the  policy 
of  the  Austrian  minister  held  almost  exactly  to  this  line  of 
reasoning.05 

Cobenzl   came   to   Vienna   with   the   conviction   that 
Austria's  salvation  lay  in  an  alliance  with  Russia,  and  im- 
mediately made  overtures  in  this  direction  to  the  Russian 
ambassador,  Count  Murawief ;  his  object  was  not  to  bring 
on  war,  but  to  prevent  a  further  expansion  of  France.    The 
sounding  had  no  results.    In  the  beginning  of  1803,  Cobenzl 
made  a  second  attempt  to  approach  Russia,  sending  even 
an  archduke  to  St.  Petersburg;  this  move  was  also  without 
results.     A  fundamental  change  in  Russian  politics  was, 
however,  at  hand.     Russia's  relations  with  France  had  in 
the  meantime  cooled  considerably,  and  new  connections 
were  now  desirable;  since  Prussia  intimated  a  desire  to 
maintain  her  neutrality,  the  Czar  suggested  at  Vienna  in 
the  autumn  of  1803,  that  the  time  might  have  arrived  to 
consider  a  union  of  the  two  imperial  courts  for  the  protec- 
tion of  their  mutual  interests  against  the  robber  republic. 
Cobenzl  was  pleased  at  this  readiness  to  come  to  an  under- 
standing; nevertheless,  he  took  up  the  suggestion  only  with 
the  greatest  caution  and  did  not,  for  the  time  being,  allow 
himself  to  be  moved  to  any  decisive  step.    What  considera- 
tions guided  him  here  can  best  be  seen  from  the  instructions 
of  November,  1803,  given  to  the  new  Austrian  ambassador 
at  Berlin,  Count  Metternich.66  The  late  extension  of  French 
influence  over  Switzerland,  Holland  and  Parma,  Cobenzl 
explains,  may  have  the  object  of  strengthening  the  position 
of  the  First  Consul  in  France  itself,  but  it  may  also  form 
the  beginning  of  a  despotic  French  hegemony  in  Europe;  in 
the  latter  case,  it  is  an  evil  against  which  there  is  but  one 

"Fournier,  Gents  und  Cobensl,  29  f.,  75  ff.,  140  ff. 
-Ibid.,  203  ff. 


595]  OPPOSITION  TO  COBENZL 

means:  the  coalition  of  the  powers.  England,  and  finally 
also  Russia,  are  ready  for  such  a  step;  Prussia,  it  is  true, 
can  not  at  present  be  depended  upon.  Austrian  interests 
clearly  demand  a  cooperation  with  Russia,  and  the  only 
question  is  how  far  such  joint  action  shall  go  and  what 
object  it  shall  have.  To  give  it  an  offensive  character  would 
be  inadvisable,  since  in  the  event  of  war,  the  first  attack 
would  be  directed  against  Austria,  and  Napoleon  was 
always  better  prepared  to  fight  than  either  Austria  or 
Kussia ;  besides,  the  main  part  of  the  Russian  army  would 
have  to  be  employed  in  watching  Prussia.  Thus  Cobeuzl, 
although  declaring  himself  for  a  cooperation  with  Russia, 
emphasizes  the  necessity  of  great  consideration  toward 
France ;  he  was  inclined  most  of  all  to  favor  a  neutral  posi- 
tion and  dilatory  measures  without,  however,  letting  the 
possibility  escape  of  establishing  closer  relations  with 
Russia.  Caution  and  the  desire  to  avoid  all  compromising 
actions  characterize  his  policy  more  than  anything  else,  for 
he  has  other  purposes  than  to  make  Austria  dependent  upon 
the  movements  of  the  Russian  cabinet ;  perhaps,  he  declares, 
Bonaparte  is  after  all  not  so  insatiable  as  England  would 
have  him  to  be,  perhaps  he  may  yet  be  induced  to  modera- 
tion, and  then  it  would  be  Austria's  task  to  mediate  between 
the  powers.  As  for  England,  that  power,  he  concludes, 
must  be  watched  with  mistrust;  Britain  seems  to  have  the 
dangerous  intent  of  turning  the  threatened  French  invasion 
back  upon  the  Continent,  and  to  this,  Russia's  atention  will 
have  to  be  called  in  no  uncertain  fashion.  Cobenzl  held  to 
the  standpoint  outlined  in  these  instructions  for  the  next 
two  months :  the  negotiations  with  Russia  were  continued, 
but  at  the  same  time  France  received  the  most  considerate 
treatment.  In  this  way  things  went  on  without  any  essen- 
tial changes  and  to  the  increasing  dissatisfaction  of  Metter- 
nich,  Stadion,  the  Vienna  war-party  and  the  Czar,  until  the 
spring  of  1804,  when  new  events  forbade  the  continuance 
of  these  dilatory  tactics.  Napoleon  acted  as  though  wish- 
ing to  annex  the  Cisalpine  Republic  to  France  and  to  come 
to  an  intimate  understanding  with  Bavaria;  besides,  the 


110  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [59H 

cooling  of  the  relations  between  Paris  and  St.  Petersburg 
had  now  developed  into  a  scarcely  concealed  breach.  Co- 
benzl  realized  the  impossibility  of  further  temporizing.  He 
made  a  futile  attempt  at  coming  to  an  understanding  with 
Prussia  and  then  determined — on  November  6,  1804 — to 
form  a  defensive  alliance  with  Russia  against  France.  The 
die  was  cast,  and  immediately  Cobenzl  showed  that  his  pre- 
vious hesitations  had  in  no  wise  been  the  result  of  natural 
indecision ;  he  demanded  and  obtained  the  reorganization  of 
the  war  ministry;  Duka  was  replaced  by  General  Mack, 
Fassbender  removed  and  Archduke  Charles'  competency  re- 
duced. Eight  months  later  Cobenzl  took  the  last  step.  In 
March,  1804,  the  French  ambassador  at  Vienna  officially  an- 
nounced that  the  acceptance  of  the  crown  of  Lombardy  by 
Napoleon  was  imminent,  and  in  June  of  the  same  year  the 
Ligurian  Republic  was  incorporated  into  the  French  em- 
pire. The  danger  for  the  Austrian  possessions  in  Upper- 
Italy  had  thus  become  a  direct  one,  and  now — July  7,  1805 
—Emperor  Francis  decided,  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
foreign  office,  to  join  the  English-Russian  alliance.  This 
step  meant  an  abandonment  by  the  Austrian  cabinet  of  its 
previous  defensive  attitude,  and  the  effects  of  the  new  policy 
became  apparent  almost  immediately:  a  few  weeks  later, 
the  French  army  that  had  been  standing  on  the  shores  of 
the  Channel  started  towards  the  Rhine. 

All  the  negotiations  referred  to  above  were  carried  on 
with  the  utmost  secrecy  as  they  should,  for  the  present,  re- 
main a  secret,  and  above  all  never  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
Napoleon ;  it  is  even  possible  that  Cobenzl  let  drop,  in  addi- 
tion, certain  misleading  hints.67  The  plan  of  secrecy  was 
logically  quite  correct,  except  for  the  fact  that  it  was  sure 
to  have  very  serious  attendant  results :  since  no  one  knew 
exactly  what  was  happening,  many  would  not  even  believe 
that  anything  at  all  was  in  progress,  at  least  not  anything 
good.  The  war-party  became  first  suspicious,  and  then 
aroused,  as  did  Gentz,  who  in  the  meantime  had  risen  to  the 

"Tagebiicher,  I,  39. 


597]  OPPOSITION  TO  COBENZL  111 

position  of  one  of  its  leaders.  He  knew,  as  be  tells  later,68 
extremely  little  of  the  negotiations  that  were  being  carried 
on  with  Russia;  but  this  little  satisfied  him  that  Cobenzl 
plainly  had  in  mind  to  reject  Russia's  offer,  that  he  would 
not  trouble  himself  about  Prussia's  support,  and  that  he 
was  ready  to  allow  destruction  to  overtake  the  state.  Such 
conduct  was  surely  unheard-of,  almost  high  treason  in  fact, 
and  the  good  of  the  country  demanded  that  it  be  stopped  as 
quickly  as  possible.  Since  Cobenzl  might  still  be  open  to 
arguments,  Gentz  proceeded  to  address  a  number  of 
memorials  to  him.69  Almost  at  the  same  time,  however,  he 
adopted  also  other  and  most  extreme  measures :  he  sounded 
the  alarm,  denounced  the  minister  in  letters,70  aroused 
society  against  him  wherever  it  was  not  already  so  disposed 
or  did  not  belong  to  the  opposite  party,  and  sought  to  obtain 
Cobenzl's  removal  from  office,  first  from  the  Emperor 
through  Archduke  John  (autumn  of  1804),  then  from  Pitt 
(autumn  of  1804  and  end  of  1805),  and  through  Czartory- 
ski  even  from  the  Czar  (end  of  1805 ).71  Years  later  he 
confessed  his  mistake.72  He  was,  as  he  remarks  in  his 
diaries,  less  and  less  in  touch  with  Cobenzl  and  at  last  not 
at  all  so,  and  had  been  left  by  him  in  "complete  and  wrong- 
ful ignorance"  about  the  negotiations  with  Russia ;  Collen- 
bach  had  even  absolutely  shunned  him.  From  Fassbender 
and  Archduke  John  he  had  heard  the  little  they  themselves 
knew,  and  further,  but  entirely  misleading,  information  had 
come  to  him  througli  Paget.  The  really  more  reliable 
sources  had  remained  closed  to  him,  and  thus  he  had  fallen 
"from  one  misconception  into  another."  The  justification 
is  lame  indeed.  In  reality  Gentz  opposed  Cobenzl  almost 
from  the  start  with  prejudiced  mind ;  he  judged  him  by  his 

"Ibid.,  I,  39. 

"Cf.  p.  112  ff. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  173,  194  f.,  258.  Schlesier,  IV,  16, 
74  f.,  143,  155. 

"Fournier,  Gents  und  Cobenzl,  245,  262,  288  ff.  Preuss.  Jahrb.,  CX, 
476,  479.  Schlesier,  IV,  145  f. 

"Tagebiicher,  I,  39  ff. 


112  FKIEDRICH  GENTZ  [598 

St.  Petersburg  antecedents  and  would  take  neither  the  time 
nor  the  trouble  to  wait  and  see  how  Cobenzl  would  act  in 
his  new  situation.73  Waiting  was  always  hard  for  him,  and 
he  was,  it  must  be  remembered,  a  publicist. 

Whom  Gentz  wished  to  place  at  the  head  of  the  Aus- 
trian foreign  office  is  not  quite  clear.  As  it  seems,  he  pro- 
posed to  Pitt  in  1805,  Prince  Trauttmannsdorf,  an  adherent 
of  the  Prussian  alliance  and  a  former  temporary  head  of 
foreign  affairs.74  Incidentally  he  may  have  thought  also  of 
Archduke  Charles,  who,  however,  appealed  to  him  as  not 
at  all  significant,  or,  perhaps,  of  Archduke  John.75  His 
innermost  desires,  however,  were  bent  upon  quite  a  dif- 
ferent man :  Metternich.  He  had,  so  he  writes  to  Brinck- 
mann  in  January,  1805,  just  explained  to  Archduke  John 
that  as  eventual  successor  to  Cobenzl,  no  one  else  could  be 
seriously  considered;  Metternich's  youth,  he  adds,  may, 
however,  stand  in  the  way  of  this  plan.76 

What  course  of  politics  Gentz  considered  in  particular 
as  the  most  advantageous  for  Austria,  can  be  seen  from  his 
memorials  and  letters  written  during  this  time. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  Memoire  sur  la  nccessitc  de  nc 
pas  reconnaitrc  le  litre  imperial  de  Bonaparte,  which  was 
presented  to  Cobenzl  on  June  6,  1804.77  Gentz  is  of  the 
opinion  that  Napoleon's  recognition,  if  possible,  should  be 
omitted  or  refused,  and  this  for  two  reasons:  in  the  first 
place,  because  the  authority  and  power  of  the  First  Consul 
would  thereby  be  increased;  in  the  second  place,  because 
the  Revolution  would  thus  receive  European  sanction.  Up 
to  the  present  time,  he  thinks,  the  rule  of  Bonaparte  could 
be  regarded  as  a  praiseworthy  attempt  to  suppress  anarchy, 
and  from  this  point  of  view  he  himself  has  regarded  it  until 
now;  but  that  is  no  longer  possible,  since  the  question  of 
founding  a  Bonaparte  dynasty  has  arisen.  The  French 

nBriefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  128. 

"Preuss.  Jahrb.,  CX,  476. 

"Brief e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  258.    Schlesier,  IV,  59,  75. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  259  f. 

"Mem.  et  left,  wed.,  1-28. 


599]  OPPOSITION  TO  COBENZL  113 

people,  it  is  true,  do  not  seem  to  protest  against  this  plan, 
and  Bonaparte  himself  is  seeking  above  everything  else,  the 
approval  of  public  opinion  and  its  leaders;  but  by  this  very 
fact  the  latter  identifies  himself  with  one  of  the  chief  prin- 
ciples of  the  Revolution,  that  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  peo- 
ple. Bonaparte  is  the  product  as  well  as  the  representative 
of  the  revolutionary  tendencies;  to  recognize  him  would, 
therefore,  mean  to  sanction  these.  And  granted  that  he 
were  thus  recognized,  what  would  be  the  consequence  of 
such  a  step?  The  magic  of  the  supreme  power  would  be 
destroyed;  no  throne  could  be  considered  safe  any  longer; 
a  general  levelling  would  probably  result,  and  every  future 
revolution  would  find  its  excuse  in  advance.  The  best  move, 
Gentz  concludes,  would  thus  be  to  refuse  Bonaparte  the 
desired  recognition;  if,  however,  this  be  unavoidable,  then 
let  it  be  given  only  in  concert  with  other  powers,  especially 
with  Russia,  and  only  in  return  for  concessions. 

The  next  memorial  is  addressed  to  Archduke  John ;  it 
was  delivered  to  him  on  September  6,  1804,  and  was  to 
reach,  if  possible,  the  ear  of  the  Emperor  himself.78  In  con- 
tent, it  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  best-written  of  all 
the  works  of  Gentz.  The  ideas  brought  forth  in  it  are  as 
follows.  Even  a  cursory  review  of  the  international  situa- 
tion of  Europe  shows  it  to  be  unsatisfactory  and  serious. 
That  the  Revolution  has  now  definitely  come  out  victorious 
and  in  all  probability  will  pursue  its  ravages  even  farther, 
is  bad  enough ;  but  it  is  far  more  serious  that  the  European 
balance  of  power  has  now  become  a  mere  fiction.  The  Con- 
tinent is  unmistakeably  trending  towards  a  double  uni- 
versal monarchy :  the  East  will,  unless  a  bar  is  interposed 
at  the  eleventh  hour,  fall  to  Russia,  the  West  and  South  to 
France,  and  central  Europe  to  both  powers  together.  In  a 
certain  sense  these  changes,  which  must  be  expected  from 
the  future,  have  already  taken  place.  Italy,  Switzerland, 
and  all  northern  and  western  Germany  are  already  nothing 
but  French  dependencies,  and  the  terror  of  the  French  name 

"Fournier,  Gents  und  Cobensl,  242-292. 


114  FRIEDKICH   GENTZ  [600 

has  become  the  chief  and  only  political  impulse  of  all  gov- 
ernments. In  addition  to  this  there  stands  at  the  head  of 
France's  collossal  power  a  sinister,  passionate  and  insati- 
able man  who  from  all  appearances  is  reaching  out  for  con- 
trol of  Europe.  England  and  Russia  have  so  far  main- 
tained their .  independence ;  Prussia,  however,  already 
awaits  with  each  rising  sun  its  death-sentence.  Austria 
lies  at  present  still  outside  of  the  French  circle,  but  its 
situation  is  likewise  highly  precarious.  The  former  buffer- 
states  toward  France  exist -no  longer;  they  have  even  be- 
come tentacles  with  which  the  French  octopus  holds  the 
Habsburg  monarchy  in  its  embrace.  On  all  sides,  Austria 
now  borders  upon  avowed  or  secret  enemies;  its  influence 
outside  of  Germany  is  no  longer  noticeable,  and  should 
there  come  about  that  most  dangerous  of  all  political  com- 
binations, an  alliance  between  France  and  Russia,  then 
Austria's  end  would  no  longer  be  far  off.  The  danger  is 
therefore  great,  and  the  only  means  to  escape  it  is  a  change 
in  the  entire  political  system.  If  Austria  does  not  want  to 
rush  straight  to  its  destruction,  it  must  come  out  from  its 
isolation  and  that  too  without  delay.  In  other  words,  it 
must  form  alliances,  and  an  alliance  with  Prussia  would 
have  most  to  recommend  it.  The  influence  of  such  a  move 
would  extend  not  only  to  the  political  situation  but  also  to 
the  spheres  of  trade,  industry,  and  general  culture  in  both 
countries ;  it  would  also  bring  about  a  consolidation  of  the 
"Empire",  would  hold  Bonaparte  in  check  and  make  possi- 
ble a  rehabilitation  of  the  independence  of  Holland  and 
Switzerland.  To  bring  this  alliance  to  pass  presents,  it  is 
true,  a  most  difficult  political  task;  nevertheless,  an  at- 
tempt ought  to  be  made.  If  this  should  fail,  then  the  time 
will  have  arrived  to  think  of  different  combinations,  in  the 
first  place  of  a  union  with  Russia.  France  is,  in  this  con- 
nection, not  to  be  considered,  because  its  power  is  so  colos- 
sal that  an  Austria  allied  with  it  would  be  condemned  to 
play  the  part  of  a  second.  The  alliance  with  England  is 
desirable  under  any  circumstances ;  it  is,  however,  not  abso- 
lutely necessary  in  case  Prussia  could  be  won  over,  and 


601]  OPPOSITION  TO  COBENZL  115 

without  Prussia,  it  is  not  sufficient.  There  remains,  then, 
next  to  the  Prussian  alliance,  as  the  only  effective  one,  that 
with  Russia :  this  might  prevent  war  altogether,  and  would, 
if  war  should  break  out,  afford  some  certain  guarantee  of 
success.  But  it  is  just  this  alliance  which,  in  spite  of  Rus- 
sia's willingness,  is  now  avoided  or  at  least  not  sought  for 
by  Austria.  A  ministry  which  evinces  such  an  absolute 
lack  of  wisdom  and  courage  can  naturally  achieve  no  re- 
sults, and  it  is  only  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  soon  make  wav 
for  personages  who  are  ready  to  enter  upon  a  different 
course.  Energy,  patriotism,  other  men  and  other  measures 
— these  are  the  things  which  Austria  now  needs.  Only  in 
this  way,  Gentz  concludes,  shall  we  succeed,  "in  not  only 
lifting  ourselves  from  our  present  degradation,  but  in  even 
reaching  a  glorious  height  whence  we  shall  be  a  model  for 
those  about  us  who,  too,  have  fallen,  the  protectors  and 
avengers  of  the  oppressed  and  the  terror  of  the  oppressors.'' 
The  annexation  of  Genoa  by  France  caused  Gentz  to 
send  Cobenzl,  in  June,  1805,  a  protest  against  Austria's  at- 
titude.79 France's  act,  he  exclaims,  is  a  violation  of  the 
principles  of  international  law ;  at  any  rate,  it  remains  in- 
valid until  the  "corps  politique  de  1'Europe"  will  have  given 
it  its  sanction.  Why,  Gentz  asks,  was  no  protest  made? 
There  existed  no  danger  of  war ;  Bonaparte  does  not  want 
any  at  this  time,  and  would  certainly  have  yielded  to  pres- 
sure. 

Gentz's  last  memorial  to  Cobenzl  was  instigated  by  an 
article  in  the  Monitcur  and  presented  in  August,  1805.80 
Gentz  had  for  some  time  noticed  the  influence  on  public 
opinion  exerted  by  the  Napoleonic  press  and  felt  great 
disgust;  now  his  patience  was  at  an  end.  How  could  the 
cabinet  of  Vienna  contemplate  such  conduct  in  idleness? 
Did  the  fact  still  remain  concealed  from  it  that  the  French 
government  had  for  years  been  tyrannizing  public  opinion 
in  Europe?  Most  emphatically,  therefore,  he  urges  Cobenzl 
at  last  to  make  a  solemn  protest  against  such  methods. 

nMtm.  el  left,  intd.,  59-70. 
"Ibid.,  71-78. 


116  FKIEDRICH  GENTZ  [G02 

Ideas  similar  to  those  of  the  preceding  memorials  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Pro  jet  d'une  declaration  dc  Louis  XVIII 
contre  le  titre  imperial  usurpe  par  Bonaparte  of  1804  and 
in  the  Lettrc  a  Sa  Majeste  le  Roi  de  Suede  of  1805  ;C1  only 
the  second  of  these  writings,  however,  is  of  importance.  On 
the  whole  this  is  a  compliment  to  the  king  on  account  of  his 
attitude  towards  Napoleon;  yet  it  contains,  at  the  same 
time,  interesting  and  animated  statements  of  Gentz's  views 
on  the  old  European  regime,  on  the  Revolution,  on  Na- 
poleon's relations  to  it,  and  on  certain  points  of  interna- 
tional law.  Gentz  begins  with  the  remark  that  he  is  not 
writing  for  the  general  public,  for  that  feelingless,  super- 
ficial, and  frivolous  plebs;  he  is  addressing  rather  the  very 
small  group  of  people  still  standing  for  "truth,  principles, 
and  honor,"  and  among  them  he  counts  the  king.  He  then 
turns  to  the  general  situation.  We  live,  so  he  states,  in  a 
time  when  the  old  order  of  things  is  making  way  for  a  new, 
and  it  must  be  assumed  that  this  change  was  foreseen  by 
Providence.  But  was  the  change  destined  for  the  present 
era,  and  was  it  to  be  carried  out  in  the  fashion  in  which  it  is 
now  being  carried  out?  Gentz  believes  that  both  questions 
are  to  be  answered  in  the  negative.  According  to  him,  it 
was  a  later  period  for  which  all  that  was  intended  which  is 
now  being  realized,  and  for  this  reason  he  declares  it  to  be 
the  duty  of  all  well-meaning  people  to  call  a  halt  on  the 
further  destruction  of  the  old  order  of  things.  The  Revolu- 
tion has  gone  far  enough;  it  has  completely  changed  the 
face  of  France  and  will  soon  reach  the  ends  of  the  civilized 
world.  All  hands,  then,  to  the  rescue !  Above  all,  courage 
and  determination  to  conquer  or  to  die  sword  in  hand !  The 
duty  of  the  rulers  will  be  to  lead  on  the  warriors  and 
mutually  to  support  one  another :  they  should  promote  sen- 
sible progress,  but  must  oppose  unyieldingly  every  attempt 
to  overthrow  the  foundations  of  society.  In  this  way  it  may 
be  possible  to  preserve  that  which  is  essential  in  the 
glorious  old  system. 

nlbid.,  29-40,  79-104. 


603]  OPPOSITION  TO  COl'.KNZL  117 

The  effect  of  these  memorials  was  rather  slight.  Gentic 
probably  did  not  himself  expect  too  much  from  them,  if  we 
are  to  take  his  own  word  for  it.82  Cobenzl  resented  them  ;83 
Archduke  John,  on  the  other  hand,  accepted  them  with  ap- 
proval and  appears  to  have  defended  their  ideas  before  the 
Emperor.84  The  sketch  of  a  proclamation  of  the  later  Louis 
XVIII,  and  the  letter  to  the  king  of  Sweden  were  given 
wider  publicity,  as  they  were  copied  in  foreign  newspapers 
and  even  circulated  in  manuscript  form,83  and  may  have 
had  a  certain  influence. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  summer  of  1805.  War  has  not 
yet  broken  out,  but  is  on  its  way,  even  though  this  is  not 
known  to  everyone.  Gentz  is  in  eager  expectation  and  full 
of  wise  speculations  as  to  what  has  to  be  done.  The  char- 
acter of  these  speculations  may  be  seen  from  letters  to 
Johannes  von  Miiller.86 

In  July,  1805,  Gentz  sends  to  his  friend  in  Berlin  a 
rather  pessimistic  effusion  which  contains  a  resume  of  the 
whole  political  situation.  He  mourns  over  the  lethargy 
prevailing  at  Vienna  and  expresses  the  fear  that  Napoleon 
may  use  the  Austrian  war  preparations  as  a  pretext  for  an 
attack.  After  further  remarks  on  the  reorganization  of 
the  war  department  and  Emperor  Francis'  aversion  to  war, 
he  turns  to  the  ministry  and  in  particular  to  Cobenzl.  He 
is  astonished  that  Austria  has  not  opened  negotiations  with 
Russia  and  that  a  defensive  agreement  only  has  been 
sought.  Again  he  characterizes  an  alliance  with  Prussia 
as  the  only  way  to  salvation;  Cobenzl  puts  no  importance 
upon  it,  and  for  this  reason  others  must  be  placed  at  the 
helm:  "until  this  ministry  is  rooted  out,  no  good  can  come 
about."  Gentz  finally  throws  out  the  idea  of  starting  with 
Johannes  and  Adam  Miiller  "a  counter-revolution  in  the 
highest  sense  of  the  word";  what  he  understands  by  this, 

**Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  194  f. 
"Tagebiicher,  I,  40. 
"Fournier,  Gents  und  Cobenzl,  134  f. 
"Schmidt-Weissenfels,  Friedrich  Gents,  I,  177  f.,  192. 
"Schlesier,  IV,  47-118. 


118  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [604 

indeed  we  do  not  hear,  and  at  any  rate  the  idea  had  no  con- 
sequence. 

By  the  end  of  August,  all  Austria  resounded  with 
preparations  for  war.  What  will  be  the  outcome?  Gentz 
is  not  entirely  sure,  but  believes  that  the  intention  should 
be  armed  mediation.  Bonaparte,  he  declares,  wishes  war 
only  as  long  as  there  is  no  risk,  and  for  this  reason  he  now 
avoids  it;  besides,  he  is  personally  no  longer  the  man  that 
he  was  at  the  time  of  the  Coup  d'etat.  The  chances  of  the 
coalition  in  the  event  of  war,  Gentz,  it  is  true,  does  not  con- 
sider as  very  favorable:  Prussia,  he  states,  has  not  been 
won;  Russia  is  without  a  single  capable  general  or  states- 
man ;  and  Austria  possesses  generals  of  second  rank  only. 

By  the  beginning  of  September,  Gentz  is  at  last  con- 
vinced that  war  is  inevitable.  He  admits  he  has  not  ex- 
pected this:  "an  almost  miraculous  combination"  has 
caused  this  change  in  the  situation.  He  looks  for  good  re- 
sults from  the  mission  of  general  Meerveldt  to  Berlin,  but 
is  worried  lest  the  proper  instructions  have  not  been  given 
him;  he  should  wish  to  have  it  explained  to  the  king  of 
Prussia  that  he  could  prevent  the  war  by  merely  assuming 
an  appearance  of  friendliness  to  the  Coalition.  In  order  to 
be  sure  he  therefore  gives  Meerveldt  a  memorial  conceived 
in  this  spirit.87  On  the  whole  he  views  the  future  calmly ; 
"the  star  of  the  tyrant  is  on  the  wane,"  he  will  surely  yield. 
In  similiar  fashion  Gentz  expresses  himself  also  in  the  mid- 
dle of  September.  Yet  he  considers  the  Russian  support 
as  insufficient  and  asks  Johannes  von  Mtiller  to  bethink 
himself  whether  there  was  no  way  of  inducing  the  king  of 
Prussia  to  join  the  coalition;  he  himself  believes  much 
could  have  been  done  along  this  line  by  personal  meetings 
of  the  sovereigns,  missions  of  archdukes  and  direct  corre- 
spondence. 

Early  in  October,  Gentz  writes  for  the  last  time  in  a 
really  optimistic  tone.  The  sending  of  Meerveldt  and  of 
Haugwitz  to  Berlin  and  Vienna  respectively  satisfies  him. 

"Schlesier,  IV,  100. 


605]  ULM  AND  AUSTERLITZ  119 

Prussia's  policy  of  neutrality  is  aparently  wavering  and 
will  soon  be  abandoned.  Napoleon  now  probably  experi- 
ences a  bad  hour,  for  the  "theatrical  monarch"  has  never 
seen  moments  such  as  these;  perhaps  he  may  even  get  a 
stroke  of  apoplexy.  A  capable  ministry  would  have  an 
exceptional  opportunity  to  exploit  his  embarrassment. 

Thus  wrote  Gentz  in  the  beginning  of  October,  and 
never  was  he  more  sadly  mistaken.  Napoleon  had  no 
thought  whatever  of  allowing  himself  to  be  intimidated.  By 
the  end  of  August  the  army  concentrated  at  Boulogne  re- 
ceived orders  to  march  to  the  Rhine,  where  the  emperor  him- 
self would  join  it.  It  reached  this  first  goal  somewhat 
earlier  than  had  been  expected  outside  of  France;  then  it 
wound  itself  through  the  passes  of  the  Black  Forest  and  its 
northern  extremity,  moved,  by  forced  marches,  through  the 
present  Baden  and  Wurtemberg  and  before  the  middle  of 
October,  reached,  in  converging  lines,  the  upper  Danube. 
There,  at  Ulm,  fell  the  first  blow;  Mack,  the  hope  of  the 
Viennese  war-party,  had  to  surrender  on  October  19  with 
about  30,000  men.  The  effect  of  the  capitulation  was  im- 
mediate and  great:  the  road  to  the  heart  of  Austria  now 
lay  open  to  the  French,  and  within  the  camp  of  the  enemy 
doubt  and  despair  had  taken  up  their  abode.  Napoleon 
energetically  pressed  forward,  and  by  the  beginning  of  No- 
vember he  was  approaching  the  gates  of  Vienna. 

Ruin,  then,  had  arrived.  It  had  been  the  hope  this 
time  to  overthrow  the  colossus,  and  now  what  a  terrible 
disillusionment — Hannibal  ante  portas!  Gentz  heard  the 
reports  from  the  seat  of  war  in  a  sort  of  daze ;  he  was  deeply 
agitated,  almost  beside  himself,  and  the  victim  of  the  most 
contradictory  emotions.  At  one  time  he  gives  up  everything 
as  lost  and  speaks  of  flight  to  Tartary,  of  imprisonment, 
even  death ;  then  again  the  elasticity  of  his  temperament 
seems  to  assert  itself.  To  friends  in  Berlin  and  London  he 
may  send  hopeful  letters  asking  them  not  to  let  their  spirits 
fall,  everything  may  yet  turn  out  favorably;88  but  when  he 
writes  in  this  way  he  is  only  trying  to  draw  himself  as 

"Mitteil.  d.  Instituts  f.  Qsierr.  Geschichtsf.,  VII,  124  ff.  XXI,  122  ff. 


120  FRIEDRICH   GENTZ  [600 

well  as  others  out  of  despondency.  In  reality  he  soon  saw 
the  situation  in  its  worst  light,  and  his  hatred  for  the 
originator  of  all  this  misery  now  knew  no  bounds.  "The 
ruin  of  my  life,"  he  writes  on  October  23  to  Johannes  von 
M tiller,  "is  for  me  an  evil  of  such  magnitude  that  every- 
thing which  now  may  happen  can  but  slightly  affect  me. 
Whether  they  drive  me  into  Tartary  or  shut  me  up  in  the 
Temple  or  shoot  me,  is  all  one  to  me.  But  that  Bonaparte 
was  not  beaten,  that  the  Electors  were  not  punished  by  new 
shame,  not  to  be  victorious — at  a  moment  when  all  the 
meaning  of  life  depended  on  victory  not  to  win — to  read  in 
their  accursed  newspapers  the  triumphant  accounts  of  these 
hell-hounds — the  rejoicing  of  their  partisans  in  Germany — 
that  absorbs  the  mind  and  leaves  no  room  for  any  other 
feeling  of  pain."89  Again,  in  the  same  way,  on  November  3 : 
"The  misfortune  which  has  come  upon  us  is  really  of  a  kind 
to  crush  the  soul  and  suspend  the  powers  of  thinking  .  .  . 
What  I  cannot  comprehend  is  how  I  ever  could  have  had 
any  hope,  ...  If  the  emperor  of  Russia  is  firm  he  can  yet 
maintain  and  save  us;  but  if  his  courage  falls  in  the 
slightest  degree,  or  if  he  does  not  keep  enough  of  it  to  give 
us  a  great  deal,  then  peace  is  unavoidable  or  else  the  down- 
fall of  Europe  is  sealed."90  Finally  on  November  8 :  "In 
two  hours  I  shall  leave  Vienna You  may  appre- 
ciate the  dreadful  and  heart-rending  feelings  which  lie  back 
of  these  words.  .  .  .  The  king  of  Prussia  is  now  in  the 
truest  sense  of  the  word  the  arbiter  of  the  life  and  death  of 

Europe If  he  but  wavers  all  is  lost,  and  this  time 

never   to   be  regained Since  yesterday — but   why 

should  I  picture  it  to  you?  I  assure  you  that  my  tears 
choke  me  when  I  attempt  it.  I  am  keenly  convinced  that 
the  end  of  the  world  has  come,  and  that  I  shall  feel  myself 
going  down  into  my  grave  as  soon  as  I  leave  my  threshold. 
Farewell,  I  can  write  no  more."91 

As  the  enemy  drew  nearer  to  the  capital,  it  became 
necessary  to  think  of  moving  the  seat  of  government  farther 

"Schlesier,  IV,  125  f. 
"Ibid.,  IV,  128  ff. 
nlbid.,  IV,  136  ff. 


607]  ULM  AND  AUSTERLITZ  121 

east.  Toward  the  end  of  the  first  week  of  November,  in  a 
dark  and  cold  night,  the  court,  Cobenzl,  and  the  foreign 
ambassadors,  therefore,  left  Vienna  for  Briinn.  Gentz 
accompanied  them;  but  with  what  feelings  did  he  travel 
this  bitter  road !  The  darkness  which  lay  heavily  and  un- 
cannily on  the  fields  along  the  wayside,  the  noise  of  the 
numerous  coaches  and  wagons,  the  fear  of  running  into  the 
hands  of  reconnoitering  parties  of  the  enemy,  finally  the 
piercing  consciousness  of  entering  upon  a  future  which 
would,  perhaps,  be  blacker  than  the  night — all  this  cut 
deep  and  infinitely  painful  furrows  into  his  already  gloomy 
mind;  "the  journey  to  the  grave,"  so  he  writes  a  few  days 
later  to  the  faithful  Adam  Miiller,  "can  not  be  worse  than 
this  for  me."02  Briinn  was,  however,  reached  in  safety,  and 
on  November  17  Gentz  proceeded  to  Troppau  in  order  to 
await  there  the  further  course  of  events.  His  mood  re- 
mained, on  the  whole,  the  same.  The  defeats  rested  heavily 
upon  him;  he  was  in  despair  but  not  utterly  so.03  The 
Russians,  he  states,  have  fought  with  distinction;  20,000 
Austrians  are  still  intact,  the  armies  are  now  arrayed 
against  one  another,  and  a  decisive  battle  must  ensue  dur- 
ing the  next  few  days.  It  is  true,  he  adds:  "Bonaparte 
himself  is  on  the  scene."  He  now  stands  on  a  somewhat 
better  footing  with  Cobenzl,  for  on  September  14  a  sort  of 
reconciliation  between  the  two  men  seems  to  have  taken 
place;94  he  can,  however,  not  yet  forgive  him  his  policy. 
"Now,"  he  writes,  "the  importance,  the  nullity,  yet  the  in- 
famy of  this  ministry  which  in  other  days  I  designated  so 
often  to  the  various  cabinets  of  Europe  as  the  real  source 
of  our  common  destruction,  stands  out  in  all  its  terrible 
aspects."  Colloredo  has  been  dismissed,  to  Gentz's  great 
joy,  but  that  does  not  satisfy  him ;  he  would  have  liked  to 
see  Cobenzl  removed  as  well,  and  hopes  for  an  intervention 
on  the  part  of  the  Czar.  He  still  expects  Haugwitz's  mis- 
sion to  yield  important  results. 

"Briefe  zw.  Fr.  Gents  u.  A.  H.  Miiller,  62. 
"Schlesier,  IV,  141  ff. 
"Tagebiicher,  I,  41. 


122  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [60S 

Napoleon  had  in  the  meantime  reached  Vienna,  and 
after  crossing  the  Danube  pushed  the  greater  part  of  his 
army  forward  in  a  northeasterly  direction.  On  November 
30,  the  two  armies  stood  opposite  each  other  near  the  little 
town  of  Austerlitz  in  Moravia,  and  there  two  days  later 
the  famous  battle  took  place  which  broke  the  third  coali- 
tion and  sent  Pitt  to  an  early  grave. 

Gentz  received  the  news  of  the  terrible  defeat  during 
the  night  of  December  3.  How  he  took  it  is  shown  by  a 
note  which  he  apparently  wrote  the  same  night,  and  which, 
at  any  rate,  he  cannot  have  written  much  later;  the  note 
reads:  "Je  viens  de  recevoir  a  1'instant  une  e"staffette 
d'Olmuetz  du  10. — accablante,  affreuse,  dechirante.  Tout 
est  perdu,  mon  cher  Comte;  nous  sommes  detruits, 
aneantis,  en  plein  de>oute."95  Again  he  had  to  flee,  and 
this  time  the  route  to  be  taken  was  hardly  less  difficult  and 
dangerous  than  it  had  been  a  few  weeks  before;  he  wrent 
northeast,  passed  the  still  somewhat  unsafe  Sudetes  and 
made  his  first  stop  at  Breslau,  from  where  he  journeyed  on 
the  Dresden.  His  state  of  mind  varied:  he  is  in  despair, 
rouses  himself  again,  collapses  once  more  and  ends  in  reso- 
lution as  well  as  apathy.  On  December  10  he  declares 
proudly :  "Everything  remains  as  it  was : — I,  who  am  also 
a  power,  make  no  peace,  nor  any  truce,  and  the  worse 
things  go,  the  more  sacred  do  I  feel  my  duty  to  be,  not  to 
yield."96  But  then  hopelessness  and  relaxation  gain  the 
upper  hand.  On  December  14  he  writes:  "The  play  is 
coming  to  its  close,  my  dear  friend,  and  soon  it  will  be  said  : 
Et  nunc,  spectatores,  plandite!  ....  Nothing  matters  to 
these  dirty  rascals.  .  .  .  Oh,  if  they  only  could  have  per- 
ished, what  a  pleasure  the  overthrow  of  our  monarchy 
would  be!  But  to  lose  the  provinces,  honor,  Germany, 
Europe  and — the  Zichys,  the  Uquarts,  the  Cobenzls,  the 
Collenbachs,  the  Lamberties,  the  Dietrichsteins  and  all  the 
rest,  to  have  to  keep  these,  no  satisfaction,  no  revenge,  not 
one  of  these  dogs  hanged  or  quartered — that  is  beyond  en- 

"Schlesier,  IV,  166. 

"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  290. 


609]  ULM  AND  AUSTERLITZ  123 

durance No  one  can  tell  whether  Bonaparte  has 

not  decided  to  take  revenge  [on  Prussia]  for  the  last  two 

months Some  evil  or  other  is  impending  upon 

northern  Germany."97  Somewhat  more  quietly  does  Gentz 
express  himself  about  his  plans  on  December  16.98  He 
thinks  it  to  be  unlikely  that  he  will  ever  return  to  Vienna, 
where  he  would  hardly  be  tolerated  any  more;  as  to  St. 
Petersburg,  he  does  not  care  to  go  there,  partly  on  account 
of  its  climate,  partly  because  next  to  cold,  death  and  the 
French  he  hates  nothing  so  heartily  as  the  Russians.  He 
shows  contempt  for  the  Austrians,  but  has  a  feeling  of 
sympathy  for  them  as  well,  and  to  see  them  scorned  by 
these  Russian  "barbarians"  is  more  than  he  can  endure. 
If  everything  should  go  to  ruin,  he  might  settle  somewhere 
in  the  Tyrol  or  Carinthia,  and  there  live  in  communion  with 
the  plants  and  the  stars;  what  proconsul  or  tyrant  may 
rule,  shall  then  not  matter  to  him.  At  present  he  is  ready 
to  continue  the  fight  along  the  old  lines  and  meets,  early 
in  1806,  Stadion's  suggestion  that  he  use  more  caution  with 
the  remark  that  he  can  and  will  not  be  silent."  Pitt's 
death  does  not  seem  to  have  moved  him  very  greatly;  lie 
only  casually  refers  to  it  and  states  that  the  British  states- 
man had,  years  before  the  end,  passed  the  zenith  of  his 
fame  and  usefulness.100 

Gentz  stayed  in  Dresden  to  the  end  of  June,  1806,  and 
then  again  from  the  middle  of  July  to  the  end  of  September ; 
the  last  days  of  June  and  the  opening  days  of  July  he  spent 
in  Teplitz,  which  from  then  on  he  loved  so  much.  In  the 
first  two  weeks  of  October,  we  find  him  at  the  Prussian 
army  headquarters  in  Thuringia,  whither  he  went  on  an 
invitation  from  Haugwitz.  After  a  further  brief  stay  in 
Dresden  and  Teplitz,  he  went  to  Prague  and  this  was  to 
remain  his  headquarters  from  then  on  until  February,  1809. 
On  the  18th  of  this  month  he  received  a  communication 

"Schlesier,  IV,  153  ff. 

"Ibid.,  IV,  166  ff. 

"Deutsche  Rundschau,  CLII,  273. 

"•Ibid.,  CLII,  273  f. 


124  FRIEDRICH  GBNTZ  [610 

from  Count  Stadion  which  summoned  him  to  Vienna,  and 
from  this  time  dates  his  second  residence  in  the  capital  city 
of  the  Austrian  monarchy ;  this  residence  lasted,  with  some 
interruptions,  until  his  death. 

The  time  from  the  beginning  of  1806  to  the  beginning 
of  1809  stands  out,  therefore,  as  a  distinct  period,  and  we 
must,  consequently,  treat  it  as  such. 

On  the  whole,  Gentz  remained,  during  these  three 
years,  his  old  self  with  all  his  virtues  and  weaknesses :  he 
is  ever  active  and  pleasure-seeking,  ever  hating  and  loving, 
scolding  and  flattering,  now  ready  to  fight  and  full  of 
animal  spirits,  now  again  depressed  and  blase,  but  yet 
always  interested  in  everything  that  is  happening  in  the 
world,  and  in  animated  contact  with  a  great  number  of  per- 
sons distinguished  by  rank,  talent,  or  beauty.  His  life  was 
not  exactly  very  well  regulated,  but  pleasant  and  interest- 
ing. At  times  he  experienced  lack  of  money,  as  for  instance 
in  1806  ;101  but  in  general  he  seems  not  to  have  suffered  in 
this  regard,  thanks  to  English  assistance  which  was  again 
afforded  him  in  1807,  and  to  occasional  remittances  from 
St.  Petersburg.102  When  he  did  suffer  from  lack  of  money, 
it  did  not  trouble  him  very  greatly,103  for  he  was  used  to 
debts  and  to  hand-to-mouth  existence.  His  mode  of  life 
was,  with  the  exception  of  short  periods  of  financial  de- 
pression, almost  as  luxurious  as  it  had  been  at  Vienna ;  at 
the  close  of  1808,  he  even  fixed  up  a  house  in  Prague  such 
as  he  had  "hardly  had  in  his  best  days  in  Vienna,"  and 
made  his  trip  from  Breslau  to  Dresden  in  1806  accompanied 
by  two  couriers,  a  valet,  two  horses  owned  by  himself  and 
three  carriages.104  The  summer  months  he  spent  in  Tep- 
litz;  in  the  years  1807  and  1808,  his  stay  in  this  favoured 
place  lasted  more  than  sixteen  weeks.  He  found  there 
everything  his  many-sided  nature  desired  and  needed:  the 
creme  of  Viennese  society,  a  galaxy  of  charming  women  of 

1<nTagebticher,  I,  46,  49. 
™Ibid.,  I,  47,  51  f. 
™Ibid.,  I,  46,  49. 
™Ibid.,  I,  57,  43- 


611]  IN    EXILE  125 

rank  and  wealth,  distinguished  visitors  from  Prussia  and 
the  "Empire,"  an  army  of  haters  of  Napoleon,  a  mild  clim- 
ate and  the  lovely  scenery  of  the  entire  European  land- 
scape. The  character  of  the  natives,  too,  appealed  to  him. 
"I  cannot  describe  to  you,"  he  assures  Adam  Mtiller  in  the 
summer  of  1807,  "how  well  I  have  felt  since  I  have  been 
staying  in  Bohemia.  The  honesty  of  the  Austrians,  their 
faithfulness  and  active  sympathy  with  Prussia's  misfor- 
tune without  a  single  exception,  their  good  wishes  for  the 
future,  their  very  positive  good-will,  their  hope  and  confi- 
dence— all  this  has  endeared  them  to  me  anew.  .  .  .  Long 
live  southern  Germany  !"105  At  one  time,  it  is  true,  he  was 
on  the  point  of  leaving  at  the  very  height  of  the  season  and 
despite  all  these  splendid  features,  all  on  account  of  a 
dreadful  storm;  only  a  solemn  oath  on  the  part  of  his 
landlord  that  under  the  zenith  of  Teplitz  no  such  natural 
phenomenon  had  been  observed  for  a  hundred  years,  was 
able  to  turn  him  from  his  purpose.100 

Within  this  outward  life,  however,  Gentz  busied  him- 
self restlessly  to  attain  the  aim  that  still  was  his,  first  and 
last :  the  liberation  of  Europe  from  French  oppression.  His 
actions  and  plans  in  this  direction  may,  again,  be  learned 
from  his  personal  and  political  letters,  his  publications  and 
his  diaries. 

Turning  to  Gentz's  personal  correspondence  we  find  a 
number  of  not  uninteresting  remarks  pertaining  to  the 
present  and  future.107  At  the  head  stands  his  hatred  for 
Napoleon;  "toward  him,"  so  runs  one  of  these  remarks, 
"toward  him  alone  should  all  our  hatred  be  directed  and 
devoted  in  the  full  conviction  that  nothing  stands  in  the 
way  of  the  world's  peace  save  his  existence  alone."  Yet,  in 
spite  of  this,  he  again  feels  some  confidence  in  the  future, 
and  conjures  his  friends  to  persist  in  the  struggle.  Austria, 
it  is  true,  had  in  the  meantime  made  peace  with  Napoleon 

MBriefw.  siv.  Fr.  Gents  it.  A.  H.  Miiller,  117. 
MIbid.,  101  f. 

wBriefe  v.  u.  a.   Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  273,  280,  285  f.  Briefw.  zw.  Fr. 
Gentz  «.  A.  H.  Miiller,  106,  118,  152  f. 


126  FBIEDRICH  GENTZ  [612 

and  could,  therefore,  at  present  no  longer  be  considered; 
but,  as  to  the  future,  to  hope  was  not  impossible,  for  at  the 
end  of  December,  Cobenzl  and  Collenbach  had  at  last  re- 
signed from  office,  and  now  the  clever,  decisive  Stadion 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  foreign  office  at  Vienna.  At  any 
rate,  Russia  and  England  were  still  at  war  with  France; 
how  if  the  Prussian  cabinet  and  king  were  now  forced  to 
make  common  cause  with  them?  Gentz  had  formerly  fought 
this  idea  most  emphatically,  when  it  had  proceeded  from 
these  two  powers;108  now  he  himself  accepts  it  for  the 
moment  and  sees  "most  decisive  scenes  enacted  in  northern 
Germany":  Haugwitz,  Lombard,  and  Lucchesini  at  the 
wheel,  the  country  is  a  levee  en  masse  against  France  and 
the  king  forced  to  resistance,  or — Prussia  laid  at  the  feet 
of  the  tyrant.  A  fight  then  to  the  end,  a  duel  without 
mercy,  and  one  single  purpose:  victory  or  destruction; 
possibly  the  latter,  but  also  victory,  perhaps,  for  Gentz 
has,  even  now,  an  instinctive  faith,  as  may  be  seen  from  the 
introduction  to  his  Fragmented09  that  the  palm  would  ulti- 
mately fall  to  him  who  remained  firm  and  watchful  to  the 
end.  His  immediate  object,  it  is  true,  now  seems  to  be  an 
acceptable,  "reasonable"  peace,  which  would  give  an  op- 
portunity of  organizing  everything  anew  and  carrying  on 
the  struggle  later,  with  better  chances  of  success;  in  this 
way,  at  least,  he  replies  to  an  inquiry  from  St.  Petersburg 
sent  to  him  in  May,  1806.  The  Oubril  treaty  between  Russia 
and  France  of  July,  1806 — which,  it  is  true,  was  not  ratified 
— was  a  heavy  blow  to  him ;  he  comments  upon  it  in  these 
words:  "now  everything  is  over,  everything  is  dead  and 
gone."  And  in  this  mood  of  almost  unconditional  hopeless- 
ness he  remains  until  the  beginning  of  1809.  The  most 
dreadful  aspect  of  the  situation,  he  states  in  October,  1807, 
is  its  "final  character"  and  the  absence  of  all  prospects  for 
a  reversal.  He  dares  entertain  hopes  only  for  the  more 
remote  future;  as  to  the  present,  nothing  is  to  be  expected 
any  more  from  it,  not  even  from  Spain.  Only  at  the  head 

""Schlesier,  IV,  117,  159. 
~Cf.  p.  128. 


613]  IN  EXILE  127 

of  a  few  hundred  thousand  men  could  one  speak  to 
Napoleon  a  word  that  would  carry  weight,  but  this  ultinw 
ratio  of  all  negotiations  with  him — where  is  it? 

Gentz  published  during  these  years  the  following  three 
works:  Fragmente  aus  der  neuesten  Geschichte  des  poll- 
tischen  Glcichgewichts  in  Europa;  Authentische  Darstel- 
lung  des  Verhdltnisses  zicischen  England  und  Spanien  vor 
und  bei  dem  Ausbruche  des  Kriegs  zi&ischen  den  beiden 
Machten;  and  Observations  sur  la  negotiation,  entre  V  An- 
gleterrc  et  la  France  en  1806.110  Of  these  the  first  men- 
tioned is  the  most  important. 

The  Fragmente  make  up  a  somewhat  heterogeneous 
whole.  Their  text  was  written  in  the  months  of  September 
and  October  of  1805,  their  introduction,  however,  in  the 
beginning  of  1806,  and  the  whole  work  was  published  in  the 
summer  of  1806.  The  political  situations  at  the  times  when 
these  parts  originated  were  thus  quite  different,  and  to 
this  is  attributable  the  differences  of  tone  pervading  the 
whole  work:  the  text  is  still  optimistic,  the  introduction, 
however,  even  though  decided,  is  filled  with  forebodings. 
The  latter  only  is  of  interest  here  and  it  may  be  well  to 
make  clear  its  general  character  by  means  of  a  few  cita- 
tions. Gentz  first  submits  the  question  from  whom  help 
may  be  expected,  and  finds  that  there  is  no  counting  either 
on  governments  or  on  public  opinion;  one  hope  only  is  left, 
the  small  group  of  "the  strong,  the  pure  and  the  good."  To 
these  he  turns,  therefore,  demanding  of  them  in  incisive 
and  fiery  words  to  hold  out.  "You  to  whom  these  words 
are  first  addressed,"  he  writes,  "you  the  lone  pride  of  our 
country,  you  who  are  high  of  purpose  and  subdued  by  no 
misfortune,  Germans  worthy  of  the  name — be  not  weary, 

despair  not The  real  task  of  liberation  must  be 

performed  on  German  soil.  Here  the  restoration  must  be- 
gin just  as  here  the  ruin  was  accomplished  and  destruction 
brought  to  its  completion.  Europe  fell  through  Germany ; 
through  Germany  it  must  rise  again Our  inward 

"•Weick,  IV,  1-199;  III,  1-370.    Mtm.  et  lett.  wed.,  105-220. 


128  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [614 

and  fatal  dissension,  the  distraction  of  our  great  strength, 
the  mutual  rivalries  of  our  princes  and  the  mutual  en- 
strangement  of  their  peoples,  the  extinction  of  every 
genuine  feeling  for  the  common  interests  of  the  nation,  the 
dormancy  of  national  spirit — these  have  been  the  con- 
querors, these  the  destroyers  of  our  freedom,  these  our 

deadly  enemies  and  the  enemies  of  Europe Divided 

we  fell;  only  united  can  we  rise  again You  must 

fight  as  long  as  there  is  breath  left  in  you Remem- 
ber how  even  in  idle  sports  every  untimely  rest  is  dan- 
gerous for  those  who  have  started  in  the  race,  and  how 
the  maxim  of  the  victorious  is  to  press  on  toward  the  goal 
with  ceaseless  and  ever  renewed  energy.  In  your  career,  to 
pause  is  fatal.  As  soon  as  you  stop,  you  lose  your  power, 
the  sleep  of  hopelessness  overcomes  you,  and  the  night 
which  surrounds  you  on  all  sides  settles  down  upon  you 
with  all  its  horrors.  The  more  persistently,  the  more 
earnestly  you  press  forward,  the  more  surely  will  your 
weariness  leave  you,  the  sooner  hopes  bearing  the  freshness 
of  morning  dawn  will  spring  up  in  you."111  The  text  of  the 
Fragmente  itself  gives  an  historical  retrospect  of  the  events 
of  the  years  just  past,  and  from  it  we  may  be  allowed  to 
quote  at  least  the  following  passage :  "Whether  Bonaparte 
has  really  conceived  the  idea  of  a  universal  monarchy  in  his 
proud  and  gloomy  soul,  and  in  what  shape  he  has  conceived 
it,  and  how  far  he  has  carried  it  in  his  imagination,  and 
when  and  how  he  has  thought  to  realize  it — all  this  only 
the  future  will  reveal.  This  much  is  clear  and  certain,  how- 
ever :  for  six  dreadful  years  he  has  done  without  intermis- 
sion that  which  he  had  to  do  with  the  worst  designs  in  view, 
and  he  has  succeeded  in  taking  steps  which  seem  to  fore- 
bode in  no  uncertain  way  the  most  dreadful  and  desperate 
outcome  possible."112 

Besides  these  publications,  the  following  memorials 
belong  to  this  period :    tJber  die  Ursachen  des  ungliicklichen 

1MWeick,  IV,  29  ff. 
™Ibid.,  IV,  69. 


f»15]  IN  EXILE  129 

Ganges  des  letzten  Feldzugs  (spring  of  1806),  which  is 
known  to  us  only  fragmentarily  ;113  a  second,  Sur  les 
moyens  de  mettre  un  terme  aux  malheurs  et  aux  dangers  de 
I'Europe  et  sur  les  principes  d'une  pacification  generate 
(summer  of  1806)  ;114  a  third,  addressed  to  the  Russian 
minister  Budberg  and  to  the  Czar  (spring  of  1807)  ;115  a 
fourth,  on  the  Russian  war-manifesto  (spring  of  1808), 
which  was  sent  to  Canning  and  is  also  unknown;116  and 
lastly  a  fifth,  Was  wiirde  das  Haus  Osterreich  unter  deih 
jetzigen  Umstanden  zu  beschliessen  haben,  um  Deutschland 
auf  eine  daucrhafte  Weise  von  fremder  Gcwalt  zu  befreienf 
(close  of  1808  and  beginning  of  1809 ).117  To  give  the  con- 
tents of  these  memorials  in  detail  does  not  lie  within  the 
province  of  our  present  consideration.  It  may,  however,  be 
mentioned  thatGentz  again  demands  anAustro-Prussian  al- 
liance as  the  foundation  for  an  enduring  European  peace, 
that  he  terms  the  liberation  of  Germany  the  most  important 
common  interest  of  Europe,  that  he  projects  the  plan  for 
a  new  German  federal  constitution  and  advises  Austria  to 
transfer  its  center  of  gravity  towards  Hungary.118  Most 
interesting  perhaps  are  the  propositions  made  in  the 
memorial  to  Budberg  of  April,  1807,  that  is  to  say,  of  the 
time  between  Eylau  and  Friedland ;  they  have  as  their  pur- 
pose to  force  Austria  either  to  join  the  Russian-Prussian 
combination,  or  to  make  peace  at  once  and  save  her  strength 
for  a  later  struggle. 

The  number  of  prominent  persons  with  whom  Gentz 
came  in  contact  during  this  period  was,  according  to  his 
own  testimony,  "enormous."  Among  them  he  mentions 
Prince  Louis  Ferdinand  of  Prussia,  the  dukes  of  Weimar 
and  Coburg,  with  whom  he  plunged  into  "endless  enjoy- 
ment and  frivolities,"  many  names  from  the  Bohemian  no- 

'"Schlesier,  IV,  207  ff. 

wAus  detn  Nachlasse,  II,  7-99. 

""Martens.  Recueil  des  Trailes,  VI,  479  (abridged). 

™Tagebiicher,  I,  53. 

*"Aus  dent  Nachlasse,  II,  109-158. 

"•Ibid.,  II,  156  ff.,  135  ff-  97. 


130  FBIEDRICH  GENTZ  [616 

bility,  the  Princess  of  Solms,  a  sister  of  Queen  Louise,  who 
for  several  years  was  destined  to  stand  at  the  head  of  those 
whom  he  adored,  Madame  de  Stael  and  A.  W.  Schlegel, 
certain  Prussian  and  Russian  generals,  Wintzingerode, 
Metternich,  and,  lastly,  Baron  Stein.119  Gentz  met  the 
latter  for  the  first  time  at  Dresden  in  August,  1806,  and 
saw  him  again  in  January,  1809,  at  Prague,  where  they  dis- 
cussed plans  for  the  future  in  daily  conversations.120  Stein 
went  from  Prague  on  to  Brtinn,  and  received  there,  through 
Gentz,  an  invitation  from  Stadion  to  come  to  Vienna.121 
Gentz  always  speaks  of  Stein  with  high  regard,  and  the 
latter's  resignation  in  1808  concerned  him  much;  he  was 
even  prepared  to  grant  him  "the  dictatorship  in  the  real, 
ancient  Roman  sense  of  the  word  over  everything  which  has 
to  be  undertaken  for  the  salvation  of  Germany."122  Stein 
for  his  part  was  not  quite  so  enthusiastic  over  Gentz;  he 
acknowledged,  however,  his  courage  and  political  loyalty. 
Whether  the  two  men  influenced  one  another  and  if  so,  in 
how  far,  is  not  easy  to  determine  and  would  certainly  re- 
quire minute  investigations. 

That  this  intercourse  of  Gentz's  was  not  politically  un- 
important is  clear  enough  and  is  confirmed  by  Napoleon's 
attitude  toward  him.  As  a  rule  Napoleon  paid  but  slight 
attention  to  foes  of  Gentz's  rank ;  at  times,  however,  he  did 
proceed  against  such,  as  for  example  against  the  unfor- 
tunate Palm.  His  attention  was  turned  toward  Gentz  by 
the  Prussian  war-manifesto  of  1806,  which  he  attributed  to 
him,  at  least  for  a  time,  and  one  of  his  bulletins  of  1806 
denounced  to  the  world  this  wretched  writer.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1808,  Napoleon  received  word,  through  his  agents, 
that  there  was  located  in  the  Bohemian  baths  a  band  of 
confederates  who  had  relations  with  London  and  Vienna 
and  were  under  the  leadership  of  this  same  Gentz;  the 
presence  of  Madame  de  Stael  was  also  properly  empha- 

u'Tagebucher,  I,  44  ff. 

"VMrf.,  I,  58  f. 

""Schmidt-Weissenfels,  Friedrich  Gentz,  I,  302. 

mPertz,  Lebcn  des  Ministers  Freiherrn  voin  Stein,  II,  331. 


617]  IN  EXILE  131 

sized.123  The  result  was  that  he  immediately  ordered  the 
suppression  of  Gentz's  correspondence  with  this  lady,  and 
renewed  his  attacks  upon  the  conspirator  through  the 
French  and  German  press  that  was  dependent  upon  him. 
Nothing  further,  however,  came  of  it,  for  a  course  such  as 
had  been  pursued  against  Palin  or  Stein  was  then  not  to 
be  thought  of  in  dealing  with  Austria. 

As  concerns  Gentz's  more  official  relations  to  the 
powers  of  the  old  Coalition,  those  with  Prussia  were  of 
predominant  importance.  Especially  interesting  is  the 
journey  which  he  undertook  in  October,  1806,  and  at 
Haugwitz's  invitation,  to  the  Prussian  headquarters  in 
Thuringia.124  His  stay  there  lasted  ten  days,  from  the 
3rd  to  the  12th  of  October,  and  during  this  time  he  had 
numerous  conversations  with  leading  Prussian  personages 
such  as  with  the  duke  of  Brunswick,  with  Counts  Kalkreuth 
and  Gotzen,  the  Marquis  Lucchesini,  Lombard,  and  Haug- 
witz;  the  last  three  formed  the  trio  which  Gentz,  half  a 
year  before,  had  wished  death  on  the  wheel.  From  Haug- 
witz  he  learned  at  once  the  alleged  reason  for  his  invita- 
tion: his  visit  was  desired  in  order  that  he  might  be  con- 
vinced of  the  purity  and  expediency  of  the  present  Prus- 
sian policy.  In  further  conversations,  Haugwitz  explained 
the  objects  of  this  policy  in  detail  and  touched,  at  the  same 
time,  once  more  upon  the  motive  for  calling  Gentz:  what 
was  desired  of  him,  so  Haugwitz  explained,  was  less  his 
counsel  or  his  help  as  a  publicist  than  his  good  will  in 
general ;  Prussia  was  accused  of  unreliability  and  duplicity, 
without  having  deserved  it  at  all,  and  this  suspicion  Gentz 
could  aid  in  destroying  at  Vienna  and  elsewhere.  Finally, 
Haugwitz  asked  whether  Gentz  was  in  a  position  to  give 
any  information  about  the  intentions  of  the  Austrian  cab- 
inet. To  this  Gentz  replied  in  the  negative,  adding  that  it 
would  perhaps  be  more  to  the  purpose  to  let  the  past  rest 
and  to  hope  for  a  justification  in  the  eyes  of  the  public  from 

"•Hausser,  Deutsche  Geschichte,  III,  315. 

""His  journal  on  this  voyage  is  published  in  Mem.  et  lett.  ined.,  221-346. 


132  FBIEDBICH  GENTZ  [CIS 

Prussia's  present  attitude.  The  succeeding  days  were  spent 
principally  in  conversation  with  Lombard,  with  whom 
Gentz  had  become  acquainted  earlier  at  Berlin.  Lombard 
first  spoke  at  length  on  the  necessity  of  the  former  Prussian 
policy  of  neutrality,  in  which  he  himself  had  taken  a  leading 
part,  and  then  gave  Gentz  the  plan  of  a  letter  from  the  king 
to  Napoleon  with  the  request  that  he  read  it  and  give  his 
opinion  on  it,  Gentz  acquiesced  in  the  request  and  raised 
various  objections.  Later  Lombard  presented  a  second 
sketch,  that  of  the  Prussian  war-manifesto,  the  composi- 
tion of  which  had  also  been  entrusted  to  him.  Again  Gentz 
made  unfavorable  criticisms,  and  on  his  suggestion  certain 
passages  were  stricken  out,  such  as  those  concerning  the 
affairs  of  the  duke  of  Enghien,  and  the  attempts  at  in- 
fluencing the  later  Louis  XVIII  to  renounce  his  claims  t'> 
the  throne;  also  others  concerning  the  English  control  of 
the  seas  and  the  probable  attitude  of  Austria.  Finally, 
Gentz  undertook  the  translation  of  the  manifesto  into  Ger- 
man, without,  however,  being  in  full  agreement  with  either 
its  form  or  its  contents.  From  certain  indications  he  con- 
cluded that  the  impression  which  his  presence  at  the  Prus- 
sian headquarters  was  bound  to  make  upon  the  outside 
world  had  been  the  real  basis  of  his  invitation. 

In  connection  with  this  journey  there  are  still  other 
instances  to  be  mentioned  in  which  Gentz  came  into  touch, 
in  a  more  or  less  official  way,  with  Prussian  men  of  prom- 
inence. On  his  own  testimony,  he  formed,  in  September, 
1806 — that  is  to  say  immediately  before  this  journey — a 
connecting  link  between  Berlin  and  Vienna125  and  urged 
in  July,  1806,  the  king  of  Sweden  to  desist  from  war  with 
Prussia.126  In  January,  1807,  he  negotiated  with  Count 
Gotzen  on  his  own  responsibility  concerning  the  temporary 
occupation  of  the  Prussian  fortresses  in  Silesia  by  Austrian 
troops.127 

Gentz's  relations  with  London  remained  active,  al- 

"•Schlesier,  IV,  262. 

"'Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  455. 

**Tagebilcher,  I,  51. 


619]  WAR  OF  1809  133 

though  we  have  but  little  information  as  to  the  reports  and 
suggestions  that  lie  sent  there.  The  most  important  of 
what  we  do  know  is  a  letter  to  Canning,  written  in  June, 
1808.128  Gentz  offers  in  this  two  suggestions:  England  is 
either  to  leave  the  Continent  to  itself,  to  bring  Spanish 
America  into  its  own  power  and  in  this  way  to  weaken 
Spain  directly  and  Napoleon  indirectly — or,  in  case  she 
should  contemplate  holding  to  the  Continent,  to  work  in 
conjunction  with  Austria.  Incidentally  we  also  hear  that 
he  sends  expositions  of  his  views  to  the  English  press.129 

Thus  three  years  of  a  restless,  but  on  the  whole  not  un- 
pleasant exile  had  passed  by,  when  the  long  awaited  hour  of 
Gentz's  official  recognition  struck  at  last.  In  February, 
1809,  Stadion,  CobenzPs  successor,  called  him  to  Vienna, 
and  from  this  dates  a  new  period  in  his  life :  he  now  entered 
the  inner  circle  of  the  Staatskanzlei,  which  he  was  never  to 
leave  again. 

Austria  once  more  rose  against  Napoleon  early  in 
1809,  and  when  war  was  already  as  good  as  certain,  Gentz 
received  the  commission  of  writing  the  war-manifesto.  As 
Napoleon  drew  nearer  Vienna  for  a  second  time,  Gentz 
fled  to  Dotis,  where  the  court  and  the  high  dignitaries  were 
staying;  at  the  end  of  October,  he  went  on  to  Prague.  In 
February,  1810,  we  find  him,  however,  again  at  Vienna.  He 
had  a  share  in  the  protracted  peace  negotiations  of  the 
summer  of  1809,  or  better,  in  the  struggles  and  intrigues 
among  the  various  parties  at  court  and  within  the  govern- 
ment pertaining  to  these  negotiations.  If  we  should  at- 
tempt to  form  an  exact  estimate  of  his  activity  during  this 
time,  from  his  own  accounts130  and  from  other  materials,131 
we  should  find  that  Gentz  considered  a  really  dishonorable 
peace  as  unacceptable,  but  urged  the  conclusion  of  a  peace 
under  conditions  which  could  be  endured;  when  Napoleon 
had  modified  his  original  demands,  Gentz  insisted  upon 
accepting  them. 

l*Mitteil.  d.  Instituts  f.  Osterr.  Geschichtsf.,  XXI,  148  ff. 

wDeutsche  Rundschau,  CLII,  274. 

"*Tagebiicher,  I,  70-208. 

^Deutsche  Rundschau,  CXXXXIV,  223-251. 


134  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [620 

But  what  was  now  to  become  of  himself?  As  early  as 
1806  and  again  in  1808,  he  had  attracted  Napoleon's  atten- 
tion, and  in  July,  1809,  even  one  of  his  letters  to  Count 
Stadion  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French.132  Something 
unpleasant  was  surely  to  be  expected,  and  hence  Gentz 
asked  his  English  friends  to  find  him  a  suitable  place  of 
refuge  in  England.133 

3.     1813-1815. 

The  years  1810-1812  form  a  period  of  rest  in  Gentz's 
life.  The  insatiable  apostle  of  war  and  one-time  conspirator 
is  now  living  most  of  the  time  in  comparative  quiet  at 
Vienna,  where  at  last  he  begins  to  receive  official  recogni- 
tion ;  occasionally  we  find  him  in  Teplitz.  He  has  suspended 
the  struggle  against  Napoleon  for  the  time  being  and  is 
silent.  Even  toward  his  friends  he  is  now  rather  uncom- 
municative, although  this  apparent  fact  may  be  due  to  the 
loss  of  the  greater  part  of  the  letters  that  he  wrote  to  them 
during  this  time. 

The  political  situation  of  Europe  and  especially  that  of 
Austria  had,  in  the  meantime,  changed  essentially.  The 
disastrous  outcome  of  the  war  of  1809  imposed  upon 
Austria  the  necessity  of  a  complete  break,  at  least  for  the 
present,  with  her  previous  policy,  and  of  seeking  a  union 
with  France.  Stadion  was,  therefore,  released  and  Metter- 
nich,  the  Austrian  ambassador  at  Paris,  took  his  place.  In 
the  spring  of  1810  the  marriage  of  Napoleon  with  a  daugh- 
ter of  Emperor  Francis  took  place  and  by  this  marriage 
there  was  added  to  the  political  bonds  between  the  two 
countries  a  dynastic  one  as  well.  For  the  time  being  the 
cabinet  of  Vienna  felt,  therefore,  assured  and  even  flattered, 
and  in  a  certain  sense  rightly  so,  for  the  French  marriage 
was  indeed  an  Austrian  success.  Whether  this  was  good 
politics  for  the  future,  was,  however,  less  certain.  A  clear- 
ing up  of  the  European  atmosphere  on  a  large  scale  had  not 

"'Ibid.,  CXXXXIV,  234. 
""Guglia,  Friedrich  v.  Gents,  230. 


621]  AT  VIENNA  1810-1812  135 

yet  been  attained  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  huge  conflict  which 
for  years  had  divided  Europe  into  two  camps,  had  now  in 
reality  become  even  more  tremendous.  After  having  at- 
tached Italy  and  the  petty  German  states  to  himself,  after 
having  thrice  conquered  Austria  and  rendered  Prussia 
almost  defenseless,  Napoleon  found  England  still  in  arms, 
Spain  in  open  rebellion,  and  Russia  on  the  point  of  slip- 
ping from  his  grasp.  It  was  rather  probable  that  he  would 
not  give  up  his  fight  with  England  and  the  Spanish  insur- 
gents. With  Russia  he  might  get  along  for  some  time  yet  ; 
but  it  was  also  possible  that  matters  there  might  come  to 
an  open  break,  and  in  such  an  event  Austria  was  in  danger 
of  being  drawn  into  the  vortex. 

The  immediate  effect  of  these  conditions  on  Gentz's 
situation  was  that  he  had  to  wait  and  remain  silent;  such 
conduct  was  perhaps  even  imposed  upon  him  officially.134 
He  had  for  a  long  time  been  personally  acquainted  with 
Metternich,  and  from  all  appearances  did  not  now  find  it 
hard  to  work  under  him.  During  the  years  1810  and  1811, 
he  was  employed  by  him  only  from  time  to  time,  and  then 
for  the  most  part  on  financial  treatises;135  after  1812,  how- 
ever, Metternich  entrusted  to  him  strictly  political  work 
as  well,  and  Gentz  himself  later  designates  the  end  of  this 
year  as  the  beginning  of  his  real  political  activity.136  In 
1812  he  writes,  upon  his  own  initiative,  two  treatises  on 
maritime  law  in  which  he  defends  the  English  standpoint; 
their  method  of  argumentation  is  essentially  historical,137 
and  the  fact  that  Gentz  could  thus  still  champion  the  in- 
terests of  England  shows  that  the  injunction  to  silence  laid 
upon  him  could  not  have  been  absolute.  On  the  whole 
his  life  is,  during  these  three  years,  somewhat  uneventful. 
He  repeatedly  asserts  that  he  still  stands  where  he  did,  so 
far  as  principles  and  inclinations  are  concerned,  but  con- 


v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  I,  341. 
""Tagebiicher,  I,  214,  255,  234.    On  pp.  229  ff.  Gentz  mentions,  however, 
such  an  order. 

"Schlesier,  V,  320  f. 
™M6m.  et  lett.  in6d.,  347-452. 


136  FRIEDRICH   GENTZ  [022 

f esses  that  he  has  learned  to  be  more  quiet,  more  just,  more 
tolerant  and  more  cool-headed.138 

Gentz  raises  no  objections  to  Napoleon's  marriage  with 
Marie  Louise  after  it  has  been  decided  upon;  he  favors  it, 
however,  only  for  political  and  not  for  any  human  rea- 
sons.139 The  death  of  Queen  Louise  touches  him  deeply  and 
he  remarks  not  unjustly  that  by  it  Prussia  has  lost  the  only 
great  decoration  which  it  still  possessed.140  The  fate  of  the 
Prussian  state  itself  concerns  him  rather  little ;  he,  a  Prus- 
sian by  birth,  goes  even  so  far  as  to  call,  without  any  show 
of  emotion,  his  native  state  a  "dying  machine".141  As  to 
England,  his  views  now  have  changed ;  his  attitude  toward 
this  power  is,  for  the  time  being,  markedly  less  favorable 
than  formerly,  and  he  defends  this  turn  by  referring  to  the 
change  of  conditions.142  According  to  him,  England  should 
fall  in  with  the  other  powers  and  come  to  terms  with 
France;  her  present  relations  to  the  Continent  must  end, 
for  they  afo,  to  a  degre-\  pitiable  as  well  as  antagonistic  to 
ihe  common  interests.143  The  fact  that  by  this  time  English 
newspapers  and  magazines  had  become  well-nigh  inaccessi- 
ble to  Continental  readers  seriously  inconvenienced 
him.144  To  his  still  greater  discomfort,  however,  the  Eng- 
lish remittances  ceased  to  come  during  1809  ;140  by  favoring 
a  speedy  conclusion  of  peace  in  1809  Gentz  had  become 
persona  non  grata  to  the  powers  at  London  and  was  now 
to  be  punished  for  his  independent  attitude.146  In  1811,  it 
is  true,  remittances  from  England  seem  to  have  arrived 
once  more.147  Personally  Gentz  is  mostly  on  the  move;  in 
October,  1810,  for  instance,  he  informs  Brinckmann  where 
letters  will  reach  him:  "on  the  route  from  Dresden  to 

MBriefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  306  f. 

"*Fournier,  Gentz  und  Wessenberg,  35  f. 

™Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  309. 

MIbid.,  I,  309. 

142Fournier,  Gentz  und  Wessenberg,  37. 

10Ibid.,  37,  45.    Brief 'e  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  I,  305. 

MBriefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gentz,  II,  314,  317. 

™Tagebucher,  I,  214. 

MPreuss.  Jahrb.,  CX,  495. 

wTagebilcher,  I,  255  f. 


623]  AT  VIENNA  1810-1812  137 

Vienna,  either  in  Vienna  itself  or  in  Prague,  or  in  Teplitz, 
or  in  the  country  somewhere  near  this  route."148  The 
charming  Teplitz  attracted  him  above  everything  else,  and 
should  we  care  to  look  in  upon  him  there,  we  might  enjoy 
the  spectacle  of  this  ever  young  gallant  and  man  of  society 
in  devoted  and  boundless  adoration  of  the  many  bright 
lights  in  the  heaven  of  feminine  grace.140 

Almost  three  years  had  passed,  in  this  fashion,  after 
the  conclusion  of  peace,  when  the  great  turn  of  affairs 
which  Gentz  was  hoping  for  finally  came,  although  he 
was  not  divining  its  coming  and  did  not  hail  it  with  joy. 
Napoleon  at  last  definitely  broke  with  the  Czar,  and  in  the 
summer  of  1812,  actual  hostilities  began.  Gentz  deplored 
this  renewal  of  the  conflict  between  the  leading  powers  on 
the  Continent  as  a  pernicious  disturbance  of  the  European 
peace,  and  was  especially  aroused  over  the  Russian  procla- 
mation urging  the  formation  of  a  German  legion;  to  take 
a  step  such  as  this,  he  declared  in  full  harmony  with  his 
political  theories,  was  tantamount  to  inviting  foreign  sub- 
jects to  render  a  verdict  on  their  own  governments.150  He 
hoped  for  French  reverses,151  but  heard,  during  the  next 
months,  only  this  much,  that  the  armies  of  the  emperor 
were  irresistably  moving  toward  Moscow.  After  the  mid- 
dle of  November,  reports  of  Napoleon's  embarrassment 
came  in,  and  by  the  middle  of  December  Vienna  heard  of  his 
flight  from  Russia  and  the  dispatch  of  an  Austrian  nego- 
tiator to  Paris.  The  moment  was,  as  Gentz  rightly  ob- 
served, "immensely  critical."  The  question  was :  what  was 
Austria  to  do  now?  For  the  time  being,  everybody  was  in 
darkness  as  to  that;  Metternich  might,  perhaps,  have  given 
some  light,  but  preferred  to  remain  silent,  partially  even 
toward  Gentz. 

While  Napoleon  was  making  energetic  preparations 
for  a  new  campaign,  Gentz  began  once  more  to  wield  his 

utBriefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  313. 
"'Ibid.,  II,  288  ff.,  313,  422. 
""Deutsche  Rundschau,  CLII,  443  f. 
™Tagebiicher,  I,  260  ff. 


138  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [624 

pen  with  the  old  vigor.  What  was  he  striving  for?  If  we 
survey  his  activity  from  the  spring  of  1813  to  the  summer 
of  1814,  we  may,  as  regards  his  policies,  divide  it  into  four 
periods:  1.  spring,  1813,  until  the  battle  of  Bautzen, 
May  20-21 ;  2.  from  Bautzen  to  the  Austrian  declaration  of 
war  against  France,  middle  of  August ;  3.  from  the  declara- 
tion of  war  to  the  battle  of  Leipzig,  October  18;  4.  from 
Leipzig  to  the  conclusion  of  peace  in  1814. 

The  lines  of  division  between  these  periods  are  marked, 
as  will  be  seen,  by  events  of  a  more  or  less  military  char- 
acter, and  this  fact  is  not  without  significance  as  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  Gentz  of  this  period.  Gentz  is,  by  this  time, 
no  more  the  old  rash  idealist ;  he  has  rather  become  a  man 
open  to  the  realities  of  life,  a  Realpolitiker  who  cares  first 
of  all  for  success.  Caution  now  guides  his  actions.  He 
carefully  weighs  the  chances  of  each  side  from  case  to  case 
before  deciding  in  favour  of  any  line  of  policy  and  is  ready 
to  change  political  tactics  as  soon  as  conditions  change ;  he 
has  learned  that  to  avoid  risking  the  loss  of  everything  a 
statesman  may,  at  times,  have  to  leave  his  tracks  and  take 
up  another  road. 

Gentz  retained,  during  this  period,  his  general  political 
aims,  especially  that  of  the  European  balance  of  power ;  yet 
he  pursued  them  less  vigorously,  for  he  directed  his  atten- 
tion now  no  less  to  the  particular  interests  of  Austria  than 
to  those  of  Europe  in  general.  His  immediate  aim  was,  at 
first,  to  make  the  Habsburg  monarchy  independent  of 
France,  to  reduce  the  French  power  to  its  proper  limits  and 
have  some  of  the  territories  ceded  by  Austria  and  Prussia 
during  the  last  years  restored  to  them;  this  being  accom- 
plished, the  European  balance  of  power  would,  of  course, 
re-establish  itself  automatically.  Soon,  however,  as  early 
as  in  the  summer  of  1813,  Gentz  began  to  become  markedly 
distrustful  of  Russia  and  Prussia  and  to  emphasize  more 
and  more,  in  like  gradation,  the  special  interests  of 
Austria.  He  has,  on  account  of  this,  been  harshly  criticised, 
and  his  political  attitude  during  the  campaign  of  1814  does 
indeed  deserve  some  criticism ;  however,  if  we  try  to  do  him 


625]  ACTIVITY  IN  1813-1814  139 

justice,  we  can  not  seriously  accuse  him  of  having  left  his 
colors.  He  was  ready,  then  as  ever,  to  fight  for  his  prin- 
ciples, provided  that  the  fight  was  not  hopeless  and  others 
acted  with  him ;  but  it  was  just  this  provision  which,  as  he 
thought  to  discover,  remained  unfulfilled.  If  he  now,  in 
the  spring  and  summer  of  1813,  counselled  avoiding  war,  if 
he  later  opposed  its  continuance  and  emphasized  the  spe- 
cifically Austrian  interests,  he  did  so  from  fear  of  Napoleon 
and — of  Austria's  allies. 

Until  about  the  end  of  May,  1813,  Gentz's  utterances 
breathe  a  rather  decided,  though  not  a  warlike,  spirit.    He 
urges  Nesselrode  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  case  of  war  breaking 
out  once  more,  to  put  before  Austria  the  alternative  of 
either  declaring  its  neutrality  or  of  binding  itself  secretly 
to  co-operation  with  Russia.152    Similar  in  their  purport, 
but  clearer  and  more  detailed  are  his  remarks  to  Wessen- 
berg,  then  Austrian  envoy  at  Munich,  dating  from  March 
and  May  of  the  same  year.153     Gentz's  paramount  idea 
there  is  that  of  the  necessity  of  common  action  between  the 
three  eastern  powers;  Austria,  he  states  without  any  sign 
of  disapproval,  made  declarations  to  Russia  and  Prussia 
which  are  such  as  to  bind  her  to  both.    Of  almost  equal  im- 
portance is  the  thought  of  inducing  Napoleon  to  make  con- 
cessions without  recurring  to  war ;  Gentz  seems  to  assume 
that  this  plan  might  be  realized,  though  he  does  not  ex- 
pressly say  so.    The  concessions  referred  to  would  consist, 
in  the  main,  in  the  ceding  of  Germany,  Italy  and  Spain; 
should  Napoleon  refuse  to  agree  to  them,  then  Austria 
would,  after  its  declarations,  have  to  join  Russia  and  Prus- 
sia.   Austria  must,  at  any  rate,  avoid  all  dilatory  measures 
and  prepare  for  war.    As  to  England,  Gentz  declares  it 
was  to  be  hoped  that  this  power  would  not  make  peace  im- 
possible by  taking  up  an  obstinate  attitude.    Even  on  Maj 
2,  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Gross-Gorschen,  he  writes  that 
Austria  was  to  join  the  allies  irrespective  of  a  possible  early 
reverse. 

mLettres  et  papiers  du  chancelier  comte  de  Nesselrode,  V,  27  ff. 
"*Fournier,  Gentz  und  Wessenberg,  62-66,  74. 


140  FRIEDEICH  GENTZ  [620 

In  the  meantime,  Napoleon  had  again  appeared  in  Ger- 
many and  opened  the  campaign  in  Saxony  at  the  head  of  a 
somewhat  composite  but  strong  army.  On  May  2  there 
followed  the  battle  of  Gross-Gorschen,  and  on  May 
20-21  that  of  Bautzen,  both  of  which  were  victories  for  the 
French ;  on  June  4,  an  armistice  of  several  weeks  was  con- 
cluded between  the  belligerents,  and  during  it  both  sides 
tried  to  get  support  from  the  rear  and  to  win  over  Austria. 
Cobenzl's  aims  before  1805  had,  then,  at  last  become  more 
than  a  dream :  Austria  was  now  the  mediator  between  the 
rival  powers,  holding  the  balance  of  decision  in  her  hands. 
Which  of  the  contesting  parties  was  the  better  to  side  with 
was  not  clear  yet ;  Napoleon  might  be  the  stronger  at  pres- 
ent, but  every  passing  hour  must  reduce  his  superiority. 
Austria's  interests  demanded,  therefore,  that  the  pros  and 
cons  be  weighed  in  the  most  careful  manner,  and  this  task 
Metternich  now  took  in  hand  with  the  objectivity  of  the 
cool  calculator. 

That  the  two  Napoleonic  victories  did  not  fail  to  im- 
press Gentz  may  be  seen  from  his  letters  written  to  Metter- 
nich and  Wessenberg  during  May,  June  and  July,  1813. 
They  re-established  to  him,  for  the  present,  the  military 
reputation  and  general  prestige  of  the  emperor;  and  from 
this  he  drew  forthwith  conclusions.  In  the  beginning  of 
June  he  frankly  acknowledges  Napoleon's  "immense  mil- 
itary superiority"  and  "art",  declaring  that  the  prospects 
of  the  allies  were  far  from  splendid ;  even  if  Austria  should 
join  the  latter,  the  issue  of  the  war  would,  to  him,  remain 
"very  doubtful",  and  this  the  statesmen  at  Vienna  might 
well  take  into  account  before  coming  to  any  decision.154 
Shpuld  Austria  decide  upon  war  against  Napoleon,  so  he 
explains,  in  the  beginning  of  July,  to  Wessenberg,  it  would 
have  to  concentrate  its  main  army  on  the  Elbe,  while  at  the 
same  time  an  army  of  some  60,000  men  might  be  formed  in 
Bavaria  to  be  pushed  forth  toward  the  Austrian  left 
flank.155 

Gentz  considered,  nevertheless,  this  superiority  as  but 

MIbid.,  74  ff.    Deutsche  Rundschau,  CLII,  446. 
'"Fournier,  Gents  und  Wessenberg,  82. 


627]  ACTIVITY  IN  1813-1814  141 

a  temporary  one.  Napoleon,  he  writes  to  Metternich  in 
June,150  long  ago  passed  the  zenith  of  his  career  and  is  now 
on  the  road  to  "certain  ruin" ;  Austria  has,  therefore,  but  to 
find  out  whether  his  ruin  will  be  hastened  more  by  war  or 
by  keeping  peace,  and  Gentz  believes  that  this  question 
must  be  answered  in  favour  of  the  first  side  of  the  alterna- 
tive. Should  Austria,  he  states,  join  the  allies  and  the  war 
be  continued,  Napoleon  would  only  be  given  an  opportunity 
of  inflicting  a  deadly  blow  on  the  Habsburg  Empire  while 
he  still  possesses  the  power  to  do  so ;  that,  however,  would 
mean  the  postponement  of  the  liberation  of  Europe.  On 
the  other  hand,  could  the  present  crisis  be  passed  without 
bloodshed,  then  Austria  and  the  Continent  might  save  their 
forces  for  a  later  and  decisive  struggle.  To  pass  the  crisis 
peacefully  does  to  Gentz,  it  is  true,  not  mean  to  allow 
present  conditions  to  continue.  These  conditions  must  be 
changed,  on  that  point,  he  thinks,  everybody  in  Austria  is 
agreed ;  and  they  must  be  changed  by  means  of  diplomatic 
negotiations  with  France  tending  toward  a  settlement  of 
the  crisis  through  French  concessions.  But  of  what  kind 
should  these  be?  Gentz  answers  the  question  extensively 
in  a  letter  to  Metternich  of  the  middle  of  June.  He  there 
distinguishes — it  is  true,  not  very  clearly — between  the 
concessions  to  be  granted  by  France  in  return  for  a 
"truce",  that  is  a  temporary  peace,  and  those  of  the  per- 
manent peace.  The  first  would  comprise  the  dissolution 
of  the  duchy  of  Warsaw,  a  "restitution"  of  Prussia  by  the 
cession  of  Magdeburg  and  the  evacuation  of  Hamburg, 
finally  the  cession  to  Austria  of  at  least  the  Illyrian  prov- 
inces; Gentz  would,  perhaps,  be  satisfied  even  with  the 
granting  of  the  first  of  these  three  points.  A  permanent 
peace,  on  the  other  hand,  would  have  to  be  preceeded  by 
France's  renunciation  of  every  direct  and  indirect  influence 
over  Germany,  eastern  and  central  Italy.  Whether  Gentz 
seriously  expected  that  Napoleon  would  consent  to  such 
concessions  is  hard  to  say.  In  general,  he  seems  to  ignore 

""Deutsche  Rundschau,  CLII,  446  f. 


142  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [628 

the  possibility  of  a  refusal  on  the  part  of  Napoleon;  at 
times,  however,  as  for  instance  in  the  middle  of  June,  lie 
shows  that  he  takes  this  possibility  into  account.157 

Gentz  nowhere  suggests,  at  this  time,  that  Austria 
should  negotiate  with  Napoleon  separately ;  he  undoubtedly 
thinks  of  a  joint  action  of  the  three  eastern  powers.  Some- 
what varying,  however,  are  his  views  on  the  particular  man- 
ner and  the  intensity  of  this  action.  In  a  letter  to  Metter- 
nich  of  June  5,  for  instance,  he  appears  to  be  rather  uneasy 
lest  Austria  might  have  become  too  intimate  with  Russia 
and  Prussia,  and  again,  five  days  later  he  emphasizes  the 
great  importance  of  Austria's  co-operation  with  these 
powers;158  possibly  this  wavering  resulted  from  his  having 
received,  in  the  interval  between  the  two  letters,  certain 
information  from  Metternich  that  is  unknown  to  us.  On 
the  whole,  it  may  be  said  that  Gentz  at  that  time,  did  not 
wish  Austria  seriously  to  bind  itself  in  any  way,  and  on 
this  account  he  gravely  criticises  Metternich  for  concluding 
the  treaty  of  Reichenbach.159  Austria,  he  states,  is  en- 
tirely free  to  act  as  she  sees  fit;  she  is  now  the  "center  of 
protest"  against  the  Napoleonic  hegemony,  and  when  the 
time  shall  have  come  for  Europe  to  order  her  affairs 
definitively,  this  settlement  will  be  arrived  at  under  Aus- 
trian leadership.160 

At  the  beginning  of  June,  Gentz  went  to  Ratiborzitz 
in  Bohemia  in  order  to  watch,  at  short  range,  the  course 
of  events ;  for  there  or  near  by  had  gathered  the  sovereigns 
and  prime  ministers  of  the  three  eastern  powers.  Soon,  he 
boasts  to  Rahel:  "I  have  chosen  this  place  as  my  head- 
quarters because  I  am  situated  here  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
great  transactions,  and  am  yet  enjoying  all  the  comforts 
and  pleasures  of  life.  ...  I  know  everything ;  no  one 
on  earth  knows  what  I  know  of  contemporary  history,  for 

™Ibid.,  CLII,  453- 

"'Ibid.,  CLII,  447,  450. 

"'Ibid.,  CLII,  460. 

MIbid.,  CLII,  446.    Fournier,  Gents  und  Wessenberg,  77,  note. 


629]  ACTIVITY  IN  1813-1814  143 

nobody  ever  was  or  can  be  in  such  deep  intimacy  with 
so  many  leading  parties  and  individuals".161  In  this,  of 
course,  he  exaggerates.  Much,  no  doubt,  but  certainly  not 
everything  reached  his  ear;  what  he  did  learn  often  came 
to  him  indirectly.  Metternich  does  not  seem  to  have  taken 
him  into  his  innermost  confidence;  at  any  rate,  he  failed 
to  inform  Gentz  properly  about  Austria's  negotiations  with 
Russia  and  Prussia  in  the  spring  of  1813  as  well  as  of  the 
later  conclusion  of  the  truce  and  the  treaty  of  Reichen- 
bach.162  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  perfectly  probable  that 
Gentz  met,  at  Ratiborzitz,  many  persons  of  the  first  rank 
and  importance,  and  some  of  these  he  must  have  met  in  a 
semi-official  way;  among  them  were  W.  von  Humboldt  and 
Nesselrode  with  whom  he  conferred  concerning  the  agree- 
ment of  Reichenbach.  In  the  middle  of  June  Gentz  was 
received  by  the  Czar,  and  one  of  his  letters  to  Metternich 
contains  a  report  of  the  conversation  carried  on  by  the  two 
men.163  Gentz  found  the  Czar  ready  to  make  advances 
to  Austria  and  spoke,  in  his  turn,  frankly  about  the  gen- 
eral situation  as  he  saw  it.  It  was  important,  he  explained, 
not  to  forget  that  the  attitude  of  the  three  eastern  powers 
to  the  war-question  were  rather  different:  to  Prussia  the 
war  was  one  of  necessity,  almost  of  despair;  to  Russia 
half  a  matter  of  honour,  and  half  one  of  political  calcu- 
lations; to  Austria,  finally,  a  pure  problem  of  business. 
Metternich  had,  at  any  rate,  to  act  simply  and  purely 
"as  an  Austrian  minister",  and  this  the  Czar,  Gentz  added, 
would  probably  agree  to.  The  main  point  was  that  the 
three  powers  should  stand  together,  to  make  effective  their 
attitude  of  protest  against  the  present  conditions  and 
against  "tout  systdme  d'  enrahissement  et  de  pr6ponder- 
ancc";  this  protest  should  form  "the  fundamental  law  of 
every  anti-Napoleonic  policy  and  an  almost  certain  basis 
for  the  gradual  restoration  of  the  balance  of  power  and 
order  in  Europe."  Finally,  Gentz  remarked  that  the  ques- 

•"Schlesier,  I,  126  ff. 

l°Deutsche  Rundschau,  CLII,  447,  451  f.,  460. 

™Ibid.,  CLII,  455  ff. 


144  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [G30 

tion  as  to  the  continuation  of  the  war  should  be  decided 
upon  only  by  Russia,  Prussia  and  Austria  in  common. 

In  the  middle  of  July  Gentz  went  with  Metternich  to 
the  congress  held  at  Prague;  he  was  not  allowed  admittance 
to  its  sessions,  but  otherwise,  Metternich  treated  him  not 
without  confidence  and  gave  him,  at  the  end  of  July,  the 
commission  to  prepare  a  war-manifesto.104  As  the  trans- 
actions in  Prague  did  not  result  in  anything,  Austria  in  the 
second  week  of  August  declared  war  against  France.  A 
few  days  later,  Metternich  left  Prague,  and  returned  to  the 
army.  Gentz  remained  there  for  the  time  being,  and  not 
until  December  did  he  go  to  the  headquarters  of  the  allies. 
The  three  months  which  he  thus  spent  in  the  Bohemian 
capital  made  up,  perhaps,  the  period  of  his  life  in  which 
for  the  first  time  he  felt  completely  happy;  another  like 
period  came  with  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  According  to 
his  own  testimony  he  was  at  this  time  "the  intermedi- 
ary in  all  important  political  relations  between  Vienna 
and  the  headquarters,  the  channel  of  all  authentic  news, 
the  centre  of  all  diplomatic  circles  and  of  all  diplomacy ;" 
he  was  "highly  honored"  at  Prague,  his  name  had  become 
"great",  his  health  left  nothing  to  be  desired,  he  had  money 
in  plenty  and  the  Emperor  deigned  to  nominate  him  as 
court  counsellor.165  If  these  statements  are  correct,  Gentz 
was  then  the  actual  civil  head  of  the  government  in  Prague ; 
at  any  rate,  he  was  one  of  its  heads,  especially  since  the 
censorship  of  the  press  in  that  city  lay  in  his  hands.  At 
one  time  he  gives  Bahel  a  pretty  description  of  his  various 
duties  and  activities:  "Today,"  he  writes,  "I  have  already 
the  following  behind  me — the  correction  of  the  papers — a 
trip  to  the  general  in  command  and  an  hour's  conversation 
with  him — the  dispatch  of  a  courier  to  Linz  and  Teplitz — 
and  an  hour  ago,  receiving  a  special  courier  from  Teplitz, 
whom  Metternich  sent  me  this  morning,  and  the  re-dis- 
patching of  this  courier  to  Vienna.  It  is  now  three 

MTagebiicher,  I,  264  f. 
MIbid.,  I,  266  f. 


631]  ACTIVITY  IN  1813-1814  145 

o'clock."106  In  tthe  beginning  of  October,  Stein  came 
through  Prague  and  offered  Gentz,  according  to  his  state- 
ment, a  place  in  the  commission,  formed  for  the  administra- 
tion of  the  territories  about  to  be  conquered.167  Up  to 
Metternich's  departure  from  Prague,  Gentz  had  "many 
important  conversations"  with  him,  "particularly  about 
German  affairs;"  it  is  not  without  interest  to  hear  him 
assert  that  the  main  content  of  these  conversations  was 
the  new  spirit  of  Prussia,  as  well  as  the  fear  that  the 
fall  of  Napoleon  might  bring,  instead  of  a  restoration,  a 
second  revolution.168  As  Gentz  himself  says,  it  was  he 
who  first  expressed  these  fears,  and  from  this  we  may  con- 
clude that  they  were  at  that  time  no  longer  new  with  him ; 
apparently,  they  had  formed  one  of  his  chief  reasons  for 
opposing  war  in  June  of  this  year. 

In  the  beginning  of  December,  Gentz  left  Prague  to 
go  to  the  headquarters  of  the  allies  at  Freiburg  i.  B.  and 
took  there  part  in  the  discussions  concerning  a  march  of 
the  allies  through  Switzerland.169  In  January,  1814,  he 
returned  to  Vienna,  where  up  to  the  convening  of  the 
congress  a  series  of  duties  occupied  him:  he  kept  up  a 
lively  correspondence  with  Metternich  and  drafted  several 
memorials  to  him,  of  which  however  only  a  single  one  is 
known;  he  exercised  the  censorship  of  the  political  news- 
papers supplying  them,  at  the  same  time,  with  articles, 
translated  manifestos,  held  the  position  of  informant  to 
the  Hospodar  of  Wallachia,  Caradja,  for  which  he  had 
been  recommended  by  Metternich  in  1812,  and  fulfilled, 
finally,  his  old  duties  of  social  intercourse. 

In  passing,  we  may  call  attention  to  a  remark  that 
Gentz  makes,  in  his  diaries,  on  his  journey  from  Prague  to 
Freiburg.170  As  he  tells  us,  he  ascended  the  "high  moun- 
tain" over  which  the  road  leads  near  Schwabisch-Hall  on 

""Schlesier,  I,  150. 
inTagebticher,  I,  268. 
MIbid.,  I,  269. 
tfllbid.,  I,  272. 
"'Ibid.,  I,  271  i. 


146  FBIEDRICH  GENTZ  [632 

foot  and  without  any  discomfort,  and  concludes  from  this 
that  his  strength  and  health  must  be  good.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  we  may  gather  from  this  report  only  this  much,  that 
Gentz  must,  by  this  time,  have  arrived  at  a  rather  high 
degree  of  physical  inactivity  and  feebleness,  for  there  are  no 
"high  mountains"  whatever  in  Swabian  Franconia.  In- 
deed, he  was  so  used  to  a  comfortable,  luxurious  life  that 
in  1813  he  could  write  concerning  his  stay  in  Prague,  quite 
after  the  fashion  of  a  beatus  possidens :  "One  of  the  best 
French  cooks  .  .  .  accompanied  me  everywhere.  My  do- 
mestic life  was  entirely  as  I  wished  it,  it  was  all  that  an 
unmarried  aristocrat  could  desire  in  the  way  of  comfort 
and  elegance."171 

From  the  declaration  of  war  by  Austria  to  the  battle 
of  Leipzig,  Gentz's  sympathies  are  on  the  side  of  the  allies. 
This  not  only  his  official  position  demanded,  but  the  gen- 
eral situation  as  well;  Napoleon  had  not  shown  himself 
reasonable  at  Prague  and  it  was,  therefore,  necessary  to 
bring  him  to  his  senses  by  further  blows.  The  victory  of 
Leipzig,  he  greets  with  enthusiasm.172  After  it,  however, 
he  wishes  peace  to  be  concluded,  and  the  proposals  of  the 
allies  to  France  in  November,  1813,  containing  the  offer 
of  the  Rhine  and  Alpine  boundaries  were  quite  in  harmony 
with  his  views.  As  they  were  not  seriously  considered  by 
Napoleon,  nothing  was  left  to  do  but  to  renew  the  war; 
the  question  was,  however,  with  what  intensity  war  should 
be  waged,  and  what  was  to  be  its  ultimate  purpose.  Gentz 
held  the  opinion  that  it  was  necessary  to  keep  always  in 
view  a  speedy  conclusion  of  peace,  and  accordingly  he 
fairly  overwhelms  Metternich  with  urgent  requests  to  seize 
every  opportunity  in  this  direction;  above  all,  he  wishes 
him  to  paralyse  the  evil  influence  of  Blticher  and  other 
"madmen."173  Anything  but  "war  of  annihilation,"  he 

mlbid.,  I,  271. 

mMetternich-Klinkowstrom,  Osterreichs  Theilnahme  an  den  Befreiungs- 
kriegen,  89  f.,  92. 

inlbid.,  220,  233  ff.,  238  ff.,  247,  267  f.,  274,  283,  316,  325  ff. 


633]  ACTIVITY  IN  1813-1814  147 

exclaims,  anything  but  an  overthrow  of  Napoleon  and  a 
restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  for  all  that  would  only  tend 
to  strengthen  the  position  of  the  non-Austrian  members  of 
the  Coalition!174  Metternich  would  do  best  to  establish 
direct  relations  with  Napoleon  and  discuss  with  him  alone 
the  foundations  of  future  peace.175 

The  best  insight  into  Gentz's  views  and  feelings  at 
this  time  may  be  gained  from  a  memorial  of  February, 
1814,  and  two  letters  of  November,  1813,  resp.  March,  1814, 
all  of  which  were  directed  to  Metternich.176 

The  first  of  these  letters  has  reference  to  the  impend- 
ing territorial  rearrangement  of  Europe  but  throws,  at 
the  same  time,  a  strange  light  on  the  state  of  mind  into 
which  Gentz  gradually  had  come.  Austria  and  Russia,  he 
now  proposes,  are  first  to  arrive  at  an  understanding  as 
to  the  future  territorial  extension  of  the  European  powers 
in  general,  and  of  Germany  in  particular,  and  secretly  to 
obtain  England's  approval  of  these  arrangements.  Then 
Prussia,  Bavaria,  Sweden,  the  petty  states  of  Europe  and 
England  as  well  are  formally  to  be  "invited"  to  join  the 
two  afore  mentioned  powers,  which  they  can  hardly  refuse 
to  do.  When  this  is  attained,  Russia  will  withdraw  from 
further  negotiations.  Austria  and  Prussia,  however,  will 
conclude  alliances  with  one  another,  and  also  each  with  the 
remaining  German  states,  which  will  form  the  back-bone  of 
the  new  German  federation;  these  alliances  are  later  to  be 
confirmed  by  all  the  non-German  powers.  The  number  of 
states  in  the  new  German  union  is  not  to  be  more  than 
sixteen.  "In  this  way,  therefore,"  Gentz  concludes,  "the 
great  question,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  would  be  settled  by 
Austria  alone  with  the  assistance  of  Russia  and  Eng- 
land, .  .  .  but  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  everything  would  be 
so  handled  and  ordered  as  though  Austria  and  Prussia  had 
completed  the  task  in  common.  This  outward  appearance 
is  as  necessary  to  present  and  future  peace  and  quiet  as 

mlbid.,  270  f.,  210. 

mlbid.,  293. 

mlbid.,  98-103,  248-262,  280. 


148  FRIEDEICH  GENTZ  [634 

is  the  actual  exclusion  of  Prussia,  Sweden,  Bavaria,  and 
all  the  other  powers  of  secondary  rank  from  every  decision 
of  importance."  To  this  Gentz  adds  the  remark  that 
Austria's  position  in  the  future  German  federation  would 
have  to  be  that  of  the  primus  inter  pares. 

The  memorial  deals  with  the  question  of  Napoleon's 
removal.  Gentz  does  not  deny  a  general  right  of  inter- 
vention of  the  powers  in  France,  but  he  denies  most  de- 
cidedly that  this  right  should  extend  to  the  dethroning  of 
a  legitimate  sovereign,  and  as  such  he  now  regards  Napol- 
eon. Whether  the  latter,  he  declares,  attained  his  power 
in  an  unjust  manner  cannot  be  so  quickly  determined,  at 
any  rate  he  has  long  ago  ceased  to  be,  so  far  as  the  French 
people  are  concerned,  an  usurper;  besides,  he  has  been 
recognized  as  sovereign  by  all  European  powers  save  Eng- 
land, and  a  recognition  of  this  kind  cannot  simply  be 
annulled.  If  it  were  planned  to  leave  it  to  the  French 
people  to  decide  whether  Napoleon  should  continue  to  be 
their  sovereign,  this  would  be,  after  all,  nothing  but  a  rec- 
ognition of  popular  sovereignty.  The  Bourbons  have  no 
further  claim  to  the  French  throne;  their  restoration  is  to 
the  advantage  of  Russia  and  England  alone,  and  is,  there- 
fore, urged  by  these  two  powers.  There  may  perhaps  be 
some  doubt  as  to  whether  Austria  would  be  able  to  prevent 
the  return  of  the  Bourbons;  but  if  the  allied  armies  shall 
once  have  reached  Paris,  this  will  certainly  no  longer  be 
possible. 

From  the  second  letter  referred  to  above,  the  following 
passage  may  be  quoted:  "My  policy  becomes  daily  more 
egotistic  and  downright  Austrian.  The  word  Europe  has 
become  a  horror  to  me.  A  common  revenge  is  no  longer 
to  be  thought  of.  The  greatest  desire  I  have  is  to  see  the 
Coalition  buried  at  once.  Then  I  should  wish  that  we 
were  grown  so  great  and  so  strong  that  everyone  would 
have  to  tremble  before  us  and  to  court  our  favor;  I  would 
not  hasten  into  new  alliances;  only  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg 
and  those  who  are  to  rule  in  Lombardy  and  Piedmont,  and 
if  possible  Switzerland,  would  I  unite  with  us;  what  is  to 


635]  ACTIVITY  IN  1813-1814  149 

become  of  Russia,  Prussia,  France  and  England,  so  far  as 
we  are  concerned,  the  next  years  will  have  to  decide.  I  put 
no  trust  in  any  of  these  powers,  and  give  none  of  them 
credit  for  good  intentions  toward  us.  Furthermore,  I 
would  not  yield  to  Russia  a  single  farm  in  Galicia,  and 
would  do  my  utmost  to  take  Warsaw  from  her." 

Gentz's  attitude  has,  then,  by  this  time  become  de- 
cidedly distrustful  of  the  allies  and  almost  friendly  to  Na- 
poleon. If  we  wish  to  understand  it,  we  shall  have  to  trace 
it  back  to  its  motives. 

One  of  these  motives  and  perhaps  the  strongest  one, 
was  Gentz's  old  anxiety  about  the  balance  of  power.  He 
strove,  as  we  know,  in  the  last  analysis,  for  a  European 
federal  system,  and  considered  such  a  system  without  this 
balance  of  power  as  absolutely  inconceivable;  the  latter, 
however,  he  believed  to  be  threatened  or  even  eliminated 
since  the  beginning  of  the  century  by  France  and  Russia. 
France  was  now  weakened,  and  in  the  future  it  might 
be  further  weakened;  Russia,  therefore,  was  left,  and 
Russia  alone,  as  the  European  peril,  the  same  Russia  that 
had  been  and  would  be  Austria's  particular  rival  in  Poland 
and  the  Balkan  peninsula.  Was  France,  then,  to  be  so 
completely  conquered  that  Russian  supremacy  must  be- 
come unavoidable?  Would  that  not  but  mean  giving  up 
one  master  for  another?  And  even  in  case  Russia  were  not 
able  to  get  for  herself  the  leadership  of  Europe,  her  posi- 
tion would,  nevertheless,  be  extremely  dangerous  to  certain 
other  powers;  for  who  could  guarantee  that  Russia  might 
not  all  at  once  extend  her  hand  to  France?  Everything 
must,  therefore,  be  avoided  which  might  strengthen  this 
colossus,  and  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  be  prohib- 
ited; for  if  accomplished  this  restoration  would  essentially 
help  toward  a  Russian-French  rapprochement*77  Prussia 
he  thinks,  has  the  same  dangers  to  fear  from  a  return  of 
the  Bourbons;  unfortunately,  however,  the  Prussian  cab- 
inet is  well-nigh  powerless  against  the  radical  demands  of 

mMetternich-Klinkowstr6m,  Osterreichs  Theilnahine  an  den  Befreinngs- 
kriegen,  257  f.,  287  f. 


150  FRIEDRICH  GENTZ  [63G 

•\ 

certain  elements,  first  of  all  against  those  of  the  army.178 
As  to  England,  he  is  afraid  that  in  the  new  Europe  the  old 
leaning  of  the  British  cabinet  toward  Russia  might  be- 
come a  source  of  great  inconvenience  to  the  balance  of 
power  and,  therefore,  especially  to  Austria;  besides,  Eng- 
land too  is  interested  in  the  return  of  the  Bourbons.170 
Taking  into  account  all  these  considerations,  it  must  be 
granted  that  Gentz  was  right,  from  his  standpoint,  in 
changing  his  political  tactics  after  the  victory  of  Leipzig. 
Other  circumstances  demanded  other  means.  The  powers, 
as  he  was  convinced,  were  pursuing  a  policy  of  self-inter- 
est; Austria  was,  therefore,  compelled  to  do  the  same,  for 
only  in  this  wray  could  she  still  hope  to  get  her  rights. 

So  far,  then,  Gentz  maintained  his  old  position.  He 
soon  leaves  it,  however,  in  so  far  as  he  looses  all  sense  of 
moderation  in  championing  these  new  diplomatic  tactics. 
His  desire  to  spare  France  and  not  allow  Russia  to  gain 
in  strength  was  logical  and  comprehensible;  his  plans 
looking  toward  new  conditions  in  Germany,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  entirely  incompatible  with  a  system  whose  funda- 
mental idea  was  the  equality  of  the  powers  and  a  common 
regulation  of  all  European  questions.  They  must  be  ex- 
plained differently,  and  their  proper  explanation  is  to  be 
found  in  a  somewhat  new  element  in  Gentz's  nature:  his 
new  Austrian  patriotism.  In  this,  therefore,  we  are  to 
see  the  second  cause  of  his  attitude  in  1814.  Originally  a 
cosmopolitan  with  certain  pan-German  tendencies,  Gentz 
had  gradually  yielded  to  the  influence  of  his  Viennese  en- 
vironments and  his  hatred  of  Russia,  to  arrive  finally  at  a 
solid  Ostreichertum,  with  which  was  doubtless  mingled 
what  Bismarck  once  termed  "Rcssortpatriotismus" ';  it  be- 
gan to  manifest  itself  in  him  even  before  1813,  and  after 
Leipzig  it  reached  its  full  vigor.180 

In  comparison  with  these  motives,  others  are  hard- 
ly worthy  of  consideration,  as  for  instance  Gentz's  personal 

"'Ibid.,  257. 

m/«rf.,  238,  258,  287  f . 

**Ibid.,  248,  271,  280. 


637]  CONGRESS  OF  VIENNA  151 

relations  to  Metternich.  As  far  as  the  material  which  is 
available  permits  of  conclusions,  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  Gentz  always  speaks  .of  his  chiefs  policy  only  in  the 
most  respectful  terms;  he  does  not,  however,  hesitate  to 
offer  substantial  criticism.  The  relations  between  the  two 
men  were,  at  least  until  1815,  far  less  those  of  dependence 
of  one  upon  the  other  than  those  of  two  sovereign  powers, 
except  for  the  fact  that  every  decision  naturally  rested 
with  Metternich.  Gentz  has  been  termed,  at  times,  Metter- 
nich's  clerk,  and  again  his  prompter ;  but  in  reality  he  was 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  Metternich  until  then  never 
seems  to  have  taken  him  into  his  innermost  confidence,  and 
Gentz  himself  often  mildly  complains  about  this  atti- 
tude.181 

While  Gentz  was  thus  protesting  against  the  continua- 
tion of  the  war,  the  allies  gradually  pressed  on  toward 
Paris  and  there  forced  Napoleon  to  abdicate.  With  this 
the  war  against  the  latter  was  temporarily  ended. 

The  tremendous  task  of  European  reorganization  which 
was  now  to  be  undertaken  fell  to  the  Congress  of  Vienna. 
As  its  secretary,  and  as  Metternich's  assistant,  Gentz  was 
initiated  into  many  of  the  secrets  as  well  as  frivolities  of 
these  nine  months  and  he  felt,  there,  quite  in  his  element. 
To  attempt  to  describe  his  activity  in  detail,  however, 
would  take  us  too  far;  he  himself  says  but  little  about  it, 
for  the  hundred  pages  of  his  diary  dealing  with  the  time 
from  July,  1814,  to  May,  1815,  give  scarcely  more  than 
some  insight  into  the  social  life  of  the  congress.  Suffice  it 
to  say,  therefore,  that  in  general  he  adhered  to  his  ideas  of 
1814.  In  the  beginning  of  1815  he  worked  out  a  Projct 
de  Declaration,  which  has  great  similarity  to  the  treaty 
of  the  Holy  Alliance  of  September  16,  1815,  if  this  be 
stripped  of  its  specific  religious  character.182  According 
to  Gentz's  own  statement,  this  project  was  read  to  the 
Czar  by  Castlereagh  toward  the  end  of  the  congress,  and 
the  latter  was  moved  to  tears  by  it;  it  is,  therefore,  not 

MIbid.,  119  f.,  127  f.,  350. 
MTagebucher,  I,  443  ff. 


152  FRIEDRICH   GEXTK  [G3S 

impossible  that  the  declaration  had  a  certain  influence 
upon  the  conclusion  of  the  Holy  Alliance  itself. 

When  Napoleon  had  returned  from  Elba,  Gentz  \v;is 
entrusted  with  the  drafting  of  a  proscription  against 
him.183  Then  war  broke  out  anew;  but  before  Europe  had 
recovered  its  breath,  the  news  of  Waterloo  and  of  the  com- 
plete destruction  of  the  imperial  army  arrived.  Gentz 
seems  to  have  taken  a  relatively  small  interest  in  the  war, 
except  that  he  was  fearful  of  a  further  shifting  of  the 
balance  of  power  in  favor  of  Russia  and  Prussia.  The 
news  of  Napoleon's  escape  from  Elba  came  to  him  on 
March  7  through  W.  von  Humboldt.184  His  sympathies 
were  plainly  divided,  even  inclining  perhaps  to  Napoleon; 
he  would  have  preferred  to  see  the  threatened  renewal  of 
the  European  conflict  nipped  in  the  bud  and  this  with  the 
least  possible  sensation.  After  Waterloo  his  fears  got  the 
upper  hand ;  he  praises  Napoleon's  attitude  in  the  battle,  of 
which  Adam  Mtiller  had  given  him  an  inspiring  descrip- 
tion,185 he  criticises  Blucher's  and  Wellington's  march  to 
Paris  and  protests  against  the  restoration  of  the  Bour- 
bons.186 He  would  gladly  have  seen  a  regency  under  Marie 
Louise,  but  finally  does  not  oppose  the  recognition  of 
Louis  XVIII.187  Called  to  Paris,  he  took  part  in  the  con- 
clusion of  peace,  again  guided  by  the  desire  to  preserve  as 
far  as  possible  the  integrity  of  France. 

A  half  year  later  Gentz  made  public  the  motives  which 
had  actuated  him  during  the  peace  negotiations  and  de- 
fended them  against  the  angry  Gorres.188  He  is  of  the 
opinion  that  the  principle  of  the  European  balance  of 
power  no  longer  demanded  any  additional  weakening  of 
France's  position,  as  would  result,  for  instance,  from  a 

mlbid.,  I,  364. 
"Ibid.,  I,  363- 
MBriefw.  zw.  Fr.  Gentz  u.  A.  H.  Mutter,  180  ff. 

""Metternich-Klinkowstrom,  Osterrelchs  Theilnahme  an  den  Befreiungs- 
kriegen,  664  f. 

™Ibid.,  666  f.      Briefw.  zw.  Fr.  Gentz  u.  A.  H.  Muller,  203. 
"'Schlesier,  II,  403. 


639]  THE  HUNDRED  DAYS  153 

forced  concession  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  The  interests 
of  an  enduring  European  peace  seem  to  him  even  to  forbid 
such  a  step ;  for,  he  declares,  if  this  step  were  to  be  taken, 
every  king  of  France  would,  under  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion,  seize  the  first  opportunity  of  winning  back  what 
had  been  lost.  This  argument  had,  no  doubt,  much  in  its 
favor,  for  after  1870  France  indeed  followed  the  very 
policy  that  Gentz  here  foretells.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
were  important  considerations  against  it,  and  these  Gentz 
seems  entirely  to  have  overlooked :  if  France  were  allowed 
to  keep  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  there  would  be  no  guarantee 
that  the  very  possession  of  these  provinces  might  not  in- 
vite the  French  to  make  an  attempt  at  winning  the  entire 
left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The  whole  question  was,  at  that 
time,  in  a  certain  sense  still  an  academic  one,  and  not 
until  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  it  made 
evident  that  here  both  men,  Gentz  as  well  as  Gorres,  were 
equally  in  the  right  and  equally  in  the  wrong.  It  is,  how- 
ever, not  impossible  that  in  Gentz's  case  still  other  unex- 
pressed motives  may  have  been  at  work,  as  for  instance 
those  which  aimed  at  bringing  Austria  in  time  into  the 
good  graces  of  the  Bourbons. 


Europe's  struggle  against  its  foremost  man  was  now 
definitely  ended.  Napoleon  himself  sailed  to  St.  Helena 
accompanied  by  a  small  suite,  and  there  six  years  later  he 
ended  his  unique  life.  The  white  banner  of  the  Bourbons 
was  floating  once  more  from  the  Tuileries,  for  the  king  had 
again  taken  up  his  residence  in  the  midst  of  his  good 
people.  Finally,  the  armies  of  the  allies  marched  back  to 
their  garrisons  and  their  homes.  There  was  peace,  at  last, 
in  all  the  lands,  that  sweet  peace  which  so  long  had  been 
hoped  for.  At  spinning-parties,  over  their  glasses,  or  at 
home  by  the  warm  fireside,  however,  people  were  telling 
for  more  than  a  generation  of  the  strange  hosts  which,  dur- 
ing the  long  years  of  war,  had  passed  through  the  country ; 
most  of  all,  it  is  true,  they  told  of  him  whose  iron  hand 
had  been  lying  on  Europe  during  these  fifteen  terrible  and 
ever  memorable  years. 

For  Gentz  too  the  struggle  against  his  great  enemy 
was  now  over,  a  struggle  that,  in  its  final  stage,  had  hardly 
deserved  this  term.  It  never  occurred  to  him  to  mourn  his 
fate,  and  he  passes  over  with  indifference  or  scorn  lamenta- 
tions such  as  those  of  Las  Cases,  Montholon  and  Gour- 
gaud.  The  era  of  Bonaparte,  at  last,  belonged  to  the  past 
and  might  so  continue;  now  more  important  things  were 
to  be  considered  than  the  fate  of  the  "ex-hero  of  the  age." 
"You  must  know,"  Gentz  writes  in  1824,  "that  Bonaparte 
is  as  good  as  forgotten  among  us,  and  in  Germany  only  a 
few  curse  or  praise  him,  ....  and  they  too  not  from 
conviction  but  from  sheer  malignity."189 

The  end  of  all  struggle,  however,  had  not  yet  come  to 
Gentz.  Although  the  great  storm  had  subsided  and  a 
second  Napoleon  was  not  likely  to  appear  in  the  immediate 
future,  the  revolutionary  spirit  had  not  been  extinguished 

*"Briefe  v.  u.  a.  Fr.  v.  Gents,  II,  340  f. 

154 


641]  CONCLUSION  155 

entirely  and  soon  Gentz  thought  that  he  heard  the  roll  of 
thunder  once  more.  Again  he  rushed  into  battle,  but  this 
time  the  struggle  was  to  end  differently.  Europe  had,  after 
all,  progressed  during  the  last  thirty  years,  and  Gentz  him- 
self realized  in  time  that  "neither  art  nor  force  can  stop 
the  turn  of  the  world- wheel" ;  so  he  became  more  and  more 
depressed,  especially  after  1825,  without,  however,  losing 
interest  in  life  entirely.  In  1831  he  sums  up  the  result  of 
this  second  struggle  against  the  revolutionary  tendencies 
in  the  words:  "I  find  myself  ....  suffering  from  an 
actual  mentally  diseased  condition  which  is  making  notice- 
able progress  in  me.  The  chief  features  of  this  condition 
are  continually  recurring  unrest  and  deep  sorrow  at  the 
shaping  of  conditions  which  are  driving  us  more  and  more 
to  the  wall, — the  bitter  consciousness  that  I  can  do  nothing 
against  it,  that  I  am  daily  becoming  more  estranged  from 
the  new  order  of  things,  that  my  role  is  played  and  the 
fruit  of  forty  years  of  labor  as  good  as  lost, — multiplied 
troubles,  irreparable  losses  in  my  income  brought  on  by 
political  catastrophes, — my  place  in  society  which  for  some 
years  J  have  too  greatly  cultivated  and  from  which,  now 
that  I  am  tired  of  it  since  it  disturbes  me  in  the  only 
pleasure  I  still  have,  I  do  not  know  how  to  free  myself, — 
discontent  with  myself  and  with  the  world, — the  feeling  of 
increasing  age  and  the  fear  of  death  which  you,  of  course, 
know;  are  these  not  enough  to  make  one  sick?"190 

Soon  after  this  confession  Gentz  died,  a  weary  and 
embittered  man.  For  some  time  he  seemed  forgotten ;  then, 
however,  he  slowly  rose  once  more  out  of  this  night  of 
oblivion,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  his  name  will  continue 
to  be  remembered.  A  historic  figure  of  the  first  rank,  it  is 
true,  he  never  was ;  one  may  even  hesitate  to  give  him  sec- 
ond rank,  since  the  influence  which  he  exercised  on  the 
course  of  events  has,  after  all,  been  but  a  small  one.  Judged 
by  the  whole  make-up  of  his  nature,  however,  he  undoubt- 
edly deserves  to  be  called  a  very  remarkable  personage. 

""Schlesier,  I,  216  f. 


156  FRIEDBICH   GENTZ  [642 

His  life  extended  over  three  distinct  historic  periods :  those 
of  the  Revolution,  of  Napoleon  and  of  the  Eeaction,  and  in 
all  of  them  he  had,  fundamentally,  one  and  the  same  aim : 
to  fight  against  whatever  was  revolutionary  and  aggres- 
sive; but  if  we  should  attempt  to  find  for  him  a  place  in 
history  which  would  be  his  own  more  than  any  other,  it 
could  only  be  that  of  an  opponent  of  the  first  Napoleon. 
Comparable  to  a  brilliant  comet  the  name  of  this  extra- 
ordinary man  stands  on  the  firmament  of  historical  fame, 
sending  forth  its  lustre  from  age  to  age.  There  is  the 
sparkling  head:  that  is  he  himself,  the  little  Caporal,  the 
tamer  of  the  Revolution,  the  Emperor ;  behind  it,  however, 
there  follows  an  immense  tail  of  duller  light:  the  com- 
panions and  enemies  of  the  great  conqueror,  and  with  these, 
with  the  group  of  anti-Napoleonic  ideologues  Gentz  must, 
more  than  with  any  other  group  or  period,  historically  be 
classed. 


INDEX 

Addington,  97,  104- 

Alexander,  czar  of  Russia,  62,  96,  98,  108,  109,  in,  121,  129,  137,  143,  151. 

Ancillon,  n,  60,  61. 

Armfeldt,  91,  98,  102,  106. 

Austerlitz,  96,  122. 

Bautzen,  138,  140. 

Bliicher,  146,  152. 

Bourbons,  i4/ff.,  152. 

Brandes,  55,  56,  58. 

Brinckmann,  28,  61,  98,  103,  104,  1 12,  136. 

Budberg,  129. 

Burke,  38f.,  51,  s8f,  62,  64f. 

Canning,  129. 

Caradja,  145. 

Charles,  archduke  of  Austria,  106,  no,  112. 

Cicero,  31,  32ff.,  36,  soff.,  57,  59. 

Cobenzl,  24,  65,  Sgt.,  91,  97,  99,  102  losff.,  112,  115,  117,  121,  122,  126,  140. 

Collenbach  106,  in,  122,  126. 

Colloredo,  106,  121. 

Czartorisky,  ill. 

Dresden,  122,  123,  124,  130,  136. 
Duka,  106,  no. 

Fassbender,  89,  102,  106,  in. 

Francis,  emperor  of  Austria,  62,  98,  106,  no,  117. 

Francois.  74 

Frederick  the  Great,  9,  13,  14,  94. 

Frederick  William  II,  king  of  Prussia,  14, 

Frederick  William  III,  king  of  Prussia,  120,  126. 

Freiburg  i.B.,  145. 

Garve,  31,  35,  36,  37,  5L  57,  59,  75- 
Gentz 

character,  22ff. ; 

correspondence,  62f.,  75f.,  98,  103,  104,  1256%  132!.; 

life,  sketch  of,  n. ; 

memorials,  63,  97f.,  iO3f.,  105,  Ii2ff.,  118,  I28f.,  135,  148.; 

place  in  history,  gi.,  issf. ; 

political  theories,  3off. ; 

publications,  37,  6if.,  77,  98,  I27f.,  135. 

157 


158  PBIBDRICH  GENTZ  [044 

Girtanner,  56,  58. 

Gorres,  30,  i52f. 

Goethe,  i/,  18,  21,  98. 

Gotzen,  131,  132. 

Gourgaud,  154- 

Graun,  28,  29. 

Grenville,  63. 

Gross-Gorschen,  139,  140. 

Gustavus  IV,  king  of  Sweden,  98,  104,  116,  132. 

Hardenberg,  98. 

Harrowby,  105. 

Haugwitz,  61,  98,  118,  121,  123,  126,  131  f. 

Herz,  57. 

Holy  Alliance,  I5if. 

Humboldt,  W.  von.,  24,  60,  143,  152. 

Ivernois,  62. 

John,  archduke  of  Austria,  30,  97,  98,  m,  "2,  113,  H7- 

Kant,  ii,  21,  23,  31,  41. 
Kollowrat  106. 

Las  Cases,  154. 

Leipzig,  92,  96,  138,  146. 

Lombard,  126,  I3if. 

Louis  XVI,  67. 

Louis  XVIII,  98,  116,  132,  152. 

Louis  Ferdinand,  prince  of  Prussia,  6of.,  98,  104,  129. 

Louise,  queen  of  Prussia,  98,  136. 

Lucchesini,  61,  126,  131. 

Mack,  102,  no,  119. 

Makintosh,  61,  70. 

Mallet  du  Pan,  21,  57f.,  59,  6r.  6sf.,  73,  74. 

Marat,  68,  69. 

Marie  Louise,  empress  of  the  French,  134,  136,  152. 

Meerveldt,  118. 

Meiternich,    9,    II,    29,    89,    97,    99,    100,    102,    108,    109,    112,    130,    134, 

135,  137,  140,  141,  142,  143,  144,  145,  I46ff.,  151. 
Mirabeau,  35,  57. 
Montesquieu,   31,  35,  51. 
Montholon,  154. 
Mounier,  61. 

Miiller,  Adam  Heinrich,  24  27,  40,  64,  87,  89,  121,  125. 
Muller,  Johannes  von,  28,  92,  98,  99,  101,  103,  104,  105,  ii7ff. 
Murawief,  108. 


645]  INDEX  159 

Nesselrode,  98,  139,  143. 

Paget,  91,  102,  104,  105,  106,  in. 
Panin,  61,  98,  102,  104,  106. 
Peace  of 

Luneville,  75; 

Schonbrunn,  133,  136; 

Paris  (1815),  152. 
Pitt,  62,  63,  105,  in,  112,  123. 
Posselt,  56. 

Pozzo  di  Borgo,  98,  102,  106. 
Prague,  123,  130,  133,  137,  144!.,  146. 

Rahel,  25,  93,  08,  142,  144- 
Rasumowsky,  91,  102,  106. 
Ratiborzitz,    I42ff. 
Reichenbach,  142. 
Robespierre,  35. 
Rousseau,  31,  35,  51,  69. 

Schiller,  17,  21,  98. 

Schlegel,  A.  W.,  26,  130. 

Schlegel,  Fr.,  26,  98. 

Schloezer,  21,  56. 

Sieyes,  68,  69. 

Stadion,  61,  89,  gof.,  102,  109,  123,  124,  126,  134. 

Stael,  98,  130. 

Stein,  98,  130,  145. 

Teplitz,  93,  123,  1241.,  134,  137,  144, 
Trauttmannsdorf,  112. 
Trouve,  74. 

Ulm,  119. 

War  of 

1805  H9ff.; 

1809  I33J 

1812  137; 

1813-1814  I37ff-; 

1815  152. 

Waterloo,  101,  102,  152. 
Wessenberg,  139,  140. 


UNIVERSITY       OF       ILLINOIS       BULLETIN 

No.    14 

•id-class  matter   under  Act 
16,   1894] 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  STUDIES 

IN  THE 

SOCIAL  SCIENCES 

VOL.    I.       NO.       «l  DECEMBER,    1912 


FRIEDRICH  GENTZ 

an  Opponent  of  the 
French  Revolution  and  Napoleon 


BY 
PAUL  F.  REIFF,  Ph.D. 

Sometime  Fellow  in  History 
University  of  Illinois 


90    CENTS 


N'OIS 

VERSITY 


STUDIES  IN  THE  SOCIAL  SCIENCES 

rKllXKST   L.    lioCAKT. 

Tin:  r.oAKD  OF  EDITOKS  J  JOHN  A.  FAIKUK. 

[LAURENCE  .M.  LAKSOX. 

The  ''University  of  Illinois  Studies  in  Hie  Social 
Sciences"  are  designed  to  afford  a  means  of  publishing 
nionograplis  prepared  by  nienibers  of  Hie  faculty  or  grad- 
siudents  in  the  departments  of  history,  economics, 
political  science,  and  sociology  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 
Numbers  will  be  published  at  irregular  intervals,  usually 
quarterly,  so  as  to  constitute  an  annual  volume  of  about 
600  pages.  Articles  and  monographs  in  these  subjects 
have  since  1900  been  published  in  a  miscellaneous  series, 
known  as  ''University  Studies",  which  will  continue  to  be 
published  independently ;  but  it  seemed  desirable  to  bring 
the  growing  number  of  monographs  in  these  allied  depart- 
ments together  in  a  separate  series.  The  following  studies 
already  published  fall  within  this  group: 

STUDIES 
Morgan,  R.  P.     The  decline  of  the  commerce  of  the  port  of  A>w  York. 

Vol.  i,  No.  2,  1901. 
Schoolcraft,  H.  L.     The  Genesis  of  the  Grand  Remonstrance  from  Par- 

ent  to  King  Charles  L    Vol.  i,  No.  4.  1902.  • 
Gordon,  J.   H.     Illinois  and   commission    courts  since 

1870.    Vol.  i,  No.  6.    1904. 

Paine,  A.  E.     The  Granger  inurement  in  Illinois.     Vol.  I,  No.  8.     1904. 
Dick-  '*  constitutional  contention  of  1862.     Vol.  I, 

q.     1905. 

Ilcrron,   B.    M.     The    progress    of    labor    organisations    a»w>  , 
Vol.  '•').     1905. 

F.     The  -senta- 

1909. 
Paetow,   L.  J. 

refc:  ''id  Rhetoric.    Vol. 

Vol.  4,  No.  i.    1910. 

he  acklro- 

111. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


i'    graduate    study    in    all 
ity. 

iont   and    Modern    Languages   and 
.lathemati'  .!  and  Political  Sciences, 

try.) 

'logy, 
•ology.) 

nng.  Municipal  and 
ring, 

\nimal  I  i '  mdry, 

'')• 

iolin),    Library 
stra- 


Xatu 

The   University   Registrar, 

Urbana,    Illinois. 


OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

a  partial  list  of  the  publications  issued  at  the  University: 
!•     '•/'/«'  V  Studies.    A  series  of  monographs  on  miscellaneous 

subjects  issued  ix  times  a  year.     Volume  I  contains  ten  numbers. 

525  '  'nine  II,  575  pages;  volume  III,  624  pages. 

ies  in  the  Social  Sciences  is  a  special  group 

of  studies    in    this   general    :-  ,    of    moi  jn    history, 

economics,  political  science,  and  sociology,  issued  quarterly.     Three  dollars 
per  i 

The  Journal  of  English  and  Germanic  Philology,  published  quar- 
terly.    Three  dollars  per  year. 

Bulletin  of  the  Engineering  Experiment  Station.    A  report  of 
the  research  work  in  the  Engineering  Experiment  Station. 

4.  The  Bulletin  and  Circulars  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 

5.  The  Bulletin  of  the  State  Laboratory  of  Natural  History. 
/'lie  Bulletin   of  the   State   Geological  Surrey. 

7.     The  Bulletin  of  the  State  Water  Sitr; 
Report  of  the  State  Entomologist. 

The    general    scries,    including    the    University    catalog,    and    the 

circulars  of  the  undergraduate  colleges,  the  Graduate  School,  the  College 

of  Law,  the  Schools  of  Pharmacy,  Education,  Railway  Transportation,  the 

Administration,  the  Library  School,  and  the  Summer 

on. 

•  Irtin  of  the  Illinois  Ass  /  Teachers  of  English. 

•tin  of  the  School  of  Education. 


FUnigan-Pcai  son  Co., 
Printers  and    Hinder. 


rr    V 


iflg 


KJF 


an* 


tftif 


f^rH 


ifer 


* 


*    W   "V-J*-  ''sT    1 

%fe 


!    "          '  *   IK 


»*9  *Vv 


j/ 


•   ;- 


